


They Said The Past Won't Rest

by AndreaLyn



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-26
Updated: 2011-05-29
Packaged: 2017-10-19 19:49:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 43,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/204580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The Navy expected a result: capture Victor and Anton Hesse</i>. Ten years have passed since Steve was sent to the mainland. He returns home in pursuit of justice, but he finds more than he bargained for after he meets Danny Williams and his young daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. learn your lesson, lead me home

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a 2000 word piece for an auction. [loveflyfree](http://loveflyfree.livejournal.com/) requested Steve and Grace spending time together. I've been looking for an AU and I suppose this mutated into an unholy and huge chaptered fic for her. I could not have done this without [liketheroad](liketheroad.livejournal.com/profile) and [sirona-gs](sirona-gs.livejournal.com/) being amazing and wonderful betas. So, dedicated to three lovely ladies, and I hope they enjoy it.
> 
> This is a chaptered fic, but it is also complete. I will be doing my very best to post once a day, for four days. The main title comes Arcade Fire's 'Suburban War' and chapter titles are from the song 'Whispers in the Dark'.

_learn your lesson, lead me home_

“I’m coming home, Dad.”

Those were big words for a man who was sent away unwillingly by his father and hadn’t bothered to return in all that time. Steve had sworn he wouldn’t come back to a place where he wasn’t wanted, but this had nothing to do with his personal life.

Coming home had everything to do with the mission. The Navy expected a result: capture Victor and Anton Hesse who had recently shifted their activity to Hawaii.

Steve was going home, led there by two criminals that he had been chasing for a year and a half. Back then, at just twenty-four, Steve hadn’t been the first choice for the task, but he consistently excelled at whatever he was given and his superiors were taking a chance on him.

Failure was not an option.

John McGarrett paused on the other end of the line. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Steve.”

Steve’s jaw tensed and he reminded himself that this was about something _beyond_ family. “It’s not a choice, Dad,” he said, clipped. “I’m tracking down some people, _bad_ people, and the rumors are they’ve landed in Waikiki and have been setting up operations there.”

“Steve, this is a bad idea.” It was like his father intended to play the same broken record until Steve saw sense.

Except Steve had seen sense for years now. He believed himself better than his father’s games. This wasn’t a chance for debate, this was a warning shot and Steve wasn’t going to change his mind.

“My flight gets in at 1600 hours tomorrow. I’d appreciate if I could stay at the house while I’m in town,” Steve said as he fastened the straps of his bag, throwing himself into packing for a mission and the comfort that came with the familiarity. He might be going home, but getting ready to leave for a new and dangerous situation was nothing out of the ordinary.

For a long moment, his father only responded with silence.

“Dad,” Steve pleaded, feeling like a ten-year-old asking his father to play catch rather than the twenty-six-year old that he was. “Please. All I’m asking is to come home. I shouldn’t even have to ask. Most people don’t,” he couldn’t help adding with a heavy edge.

Finally, _finally_ , it seemed like he’d achieved some progress by the hint of hesitation in his father’s reply. “I’ll make up your old room. Do you need a ride from the airport?”

“No, I’ll get a car,” Steve said and hung up before the call could elongate into something more awkward, though he would’ve sworn such a thing would be impossible.

Twenty-four hours later, Steve was standing outside the airport with rental truck keys clutched in hand, surveying the place that he’d once considered home.

Above anything else, he had taken pride in being from Hawaii and lived with the knowledge that his grandfather fought for a better place, dying on this soil to serve his country. He loved the land and the people, and showed great reverence in respecting the culture that he was brought up with. Then, one day, Steve was uprooted. In the blink of an eye, everything in his life became unfamiliar.

He lost his mother and his home on the same day and felt his father slip away, too. Even though John was still breathing, he was barely recognizable. Steve had lost him and gained a stranger.

Steve knew that it was childish and petulant, but he held a grudge against his father for it. To this day, he still felt as though his entrance into the Navy and the SEALs was a sort of defiance to his father’s act of sending him away.

Standing outside the airport on the tail-end of a cloudburst, Steve was having a hard time remembering why all that had seemed like a good idea. Why hadn’t he just come home? Why hadn’t he boarded the next flight and disobeyed his father’s order to stay away?

Steve was a good son, though.

Even before the Navy, there was no way that Steve would refuse an order. It was something bred down to his bones. They said jump and he didn’t bother to ask ‘how high’. He just did it.

The drive back to the house was easy and familiar. Despite his ten-year absence from the island, he still remembered every inch of the place. He knew every street and every landmark. He could have even made the turns blindfolded.

Maybe coming home would have been easier if he could see that the world was different.

Instead, it looked like he’d stepped away for only a minute. Even the house looked the same, save for a fresh coat of paint over the exterior and an unfamiliar car in the driveway. He lingered in the driver’s seat of the truck, staring at the front door.

This was it. He was going to get up, bring his bag inside, and set up a base of operations.

There was a chance that if Steve didn’t think about this like a family reunion, and instead treated it like it was – a _mission_ \-- he would avoid the terrifying pitfalls lying around him, threatening to send him into a spiral of dangerous questions.

Finally, Steve buckled his resolve and forced himself to _march_ , like any good soldier.

He slid his key into the door and listened to the heavy sound of the lock coming open. Ten years, and his key still worked. “Dad?” Steve called out tentatively as he wandered inside. He set his bag down in the corner of the front hall so that it was out of the way before continuing into the house.

Like the rest of the island, it looked basically unchanged. It was like he blinked and when he opened his eyes, ten years had passed and nothing significant was different. Steve couldn’t tell if that was a blessing or a curse.

The further he got inside the house, the more he could smell the inviting aroma of food coming from the kitchen. He kept going, coming around the corner to find his father standing above a crock-pot with a ladle, liberally dousing a large piece of meat with its own juices.

“Dinner will be ready in fifteen,” John said, barely raising his gaze to acknowledge Steve. “Set the table, will you?”

It was like he’d never even left.

That fact made Steve angrier than he thought possible. He brushed past his father and opened the cutlery drawer, slamming it shut with his hip. He wasn’t the same kid that left, but his father wasn’t going to acknowledge that. He left a child and returned an adult, but to John McGarrett, there wasn’t a difference.

Steve set the forks and knives down on the table, barely able to refrain from a look of contempt as he stared at his father. “So that’s it? You send me away for ten years and when I get back, it’s ‘set the table’?” he scoffed.

“I don’t expect you to understand, Steve,” John said calmly, opening the fridge to get out two bottles of beer, extending one by the neck to Steve with two fingers clasping it firmly. “But one day, when you’re a father, you’ll know why I did what I had to. You’ll know what it feels like to want to protect your children and to value their safety over your own.”

“There were other ways,” Steve said, hearing an immature petulance in his voice that he hadn’t allowed in almost a decade. “I was sixteen and Mary was even younger. We’d just lost Mom, you think we wanted to lose you, too?”

“And do you think I could have taken losing you?” his father retorted instantly, almost heatedly. “Steven, you have to _trust_ me. I had my reasons. When you finish this mission, it’s still not safe for you here. I hope beyond all hope that one day, one day soon, it will be, but it’s not today. It’s not yet.”

“Why can’t you just tell me? I’m a grown man, I can help,” Steve protested, the frustration building and bubbling to the point he thought it might make him break.

John brought dinner to the table, but gave no immediate answer.

“I’m getting close to something,” John said tentatively and while it was an answer, it was one that came too late as far as Steve was concerned. “I’ve had help lately. There’s a detective from the mainland. He’s new, but he’s good. And there’s someone I trained. We’re working on it, but we haven’t made enough progress that it’s safe for you to be here. You’re a target, Steve. You’re in danger because I love you. I know I don’t say it enough, and you might not believe me, but it’s true.”

“Dad,” Steve said, barely able to swallow past the lump in his throat. This wasn’t where he expected the conversation to go, and he felt trapped in a nether space of confusion where nothing made sense and nothing had changed. “I can take care of myself. More than most people,” he insisted.

“I’ve heard,” John quipped with a wry smile. “Some of your instructors are very vocal on the subject.”

Steve’s brow furrowed and he stared at his father in confusion. “Have you been keeping tabs on me?”

“I sent you away to protect you, Steve. You _and_ Mary. I never stopped loving my children.”

The rest of dinner was spent in silence. Steve didn’t know how to argue with a man who refused to see sense and John was too occupied with the meal. It wasn’t until later with beers in hand and the game on TV that the subject changed. By then, Steve’s contempt had faded but hadn’t extinguished completely.

“Can you talk about this mission?” John asked, setting a third empty on the table with the others.

Steve hesitated as he gripped his bottle tighter, debating the finer points of discretion when it came to the mission. He was, at some point, going to have to involve HPD and so keeping the facts from his father would be a petty thing to do. Still, there was a part of Steve that couldn’t help feeling as though it would be a righteous kind of bookend to being sent away with no explanation ten years before.

His need for HPD information won out, in the end. “I’m on the trail of two brothers suspected of terrorist activity. Victor and Anton Hesse. They’re both smart and they’re both on the cutting edge when it comes to bomb-making. They killed four people in Belfast two months ago and are suspected of having visited North Korea obtaining nuclear materials. The latest intel says they landed here under fake papers. My job is to bring them in, alive, for information. I don’t have more than a few weeks before they move on. They never stay in one place for too long.”

Steve leaned forward, resting the weight of his forearms on his thighs.

“I can bring them down. I can do good with this, but there’s something strange about them coming to Hawaii. Why here? They’ve never had a base of operations in Oahu before, why now?” Steve hadn’t been able to explain it from the moment he first received the briefing and his confusion was just as thick as ever.

There was a look on his father’s face that he didn’t like; it was the kind that said he knew something. And it was also the sort of look that said that while he knew might know something, he wasn’t going to tell Steve about it.

“What is it?” Steve asked warily.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” John replied dismissively. “I set up your room again. There are fresh sheets and you can stay as long as you need.”

It was like he’d been gone for a week on vacation. It was like he had never been sent away.

“Have you spoken to Mary?”

His father’s silence was all the proof he needed to know that he hadn’t been in contact with her. Steve couldn’t exactly get too indignant because when they had been sent their separate ways, he hadn’t exactly picked up the phone to call her in Los Angeles. He still hadn’t. It was like they were only family up until their mother’s death when suddenly their lives diverged on separate paths and made them, too, into strangers.

John shifted uncomfortably, turning the game off. “I speak to your mother’s sister once in a while. She keeps me appraised when it comes to Mary.”

“How is she doing?” Steve asked, ignoring the guilt of not finding out for himself.

John paused, pressing his lips together firmly. “She reacted to being sent away a bit _differently_ than you did.” Mary had always been something of a troublemaker before their mother died. Steve could only imagine the messes Mary was getting into now.

The hours crept on haltingly while Steve gave up more information on the case. Eventually, John gave information in turn and talked about the latest case he was working on. “It’s a man by the name of Doran. He’s a gun-runner and we suspect he has ties to human trafficking. The new guy, he says that protecting the island from scum is what he came here to do. He heard about it via a couple minor players on Oahu’s crime scene.”

“Who is this guy?”

“Most of the people in the department are calling him a _haole_. I’m sad to say that I’m just grateful they’ve stopped calling _me_ that,” John said wryly. “He’s your age. He moved here with some of his family, and he’s good. He’s got fresh eyes and he’s one of the most devoted detectives I’ve ever met, even if he’s only been off the streets for two years. I’ve got him on the case, and Chin Ho Kelly.”

Steve’s brows lifted in surprise. “Chin Ho? The guy whose records I broke?”

“You know, he still hasn’t forgiven you for that,” John said with a proud smile. “I’ve been training him since he first joined the force. I trust him. I trust both of them, which is more than I can say for the rest of the department. Something is going on, Steve. And all I can tell you is that it has something to do with why I sent you away to protect you, but don’t ask for any more past that.”

That was more than Steve had been given in _years_ and while he wanted to press for more, he knew that all he would be pushing was his luck. He took what he was given and knew that if he was staying for a matter of weeks, he could pry later.

Doran, the human-traffickers, and his father’s suspicion of _something_ would all be there in the morning. “I think I’m gonna turn in. I had a long flight.”

“Where were you coming from?”

“It’s classified,” Steve said, pressing his lips together tightly. He rose to his feet steadily, despite the number of beers he’d drank, and scratched his fingers over the nape of his neck. “Thanks,” he said, after a long pause. “Thanks for letting me stay here. You didn’t have to.” In fact, Steve had expected, in his heart, that he would be turned away at the door.

“If you had to come back, I would rather you be under my roof where I can protect you,” John said.

“I’m an adult now, Dad,” Steve said defiantly. “I’m more than capable of taking care of myself. I don’t need protecting.”

“You’re my son, Steve. You’re always going to need protecting.”

After ten years, Steve thought that he had effectively created enough of a disconnection that he wouldn’t feel emotionally manipulated. He was supposed to be angry at being sent away, but there his father was, making it sound like it was the best thing that could’ve been done for him.

Steve cleared his throat and cast his gaze to the ground. “I want to prove to you that isn’t the case,” he said stubbornly. “If you’ll let me.”

“You can try,” John offered and that was the foothold in the door that Steve needed.

He had weeks to prove his case. This time, he wasn’t being put on a plane and sent away for reasons that he still didn’t know. He was home now. If he left, he would leave on his terms, by his choice.

* * *

Steve was used to being woken by the sound of other voices in close proximity. After years of sleeping on narrow cots stacked three or four high, the presence of silence was more unnerving than calming. When he woke up the morning after returning to Hawaii, he could hear three distinct male voices drifting up from the kitchen in addition to the smell of fresh-brewed coffee.

“It’s risky.”

“I know it’s risky, you don’t have to tell me it’s risky, I’m the one who said how risky it was. We have to get someone on the inside.”

“They know everyone we have on the inside. It’s not a big island.”

“Do not, _do not_ smirk at me like that, I can practically read the disdain on your lips. Oh no, not you too, the both of you can go to hell. Yes, I’m new, but I can _look up the population_ of an island and make an assumption based on that. I swear to god, you people...”

The voices grew mired in quieter conversation. Steve turned to his side and scrubbed a hand through his sleep-mussed hair. Against all odds, he had slept deeply through the night. It was like being back in his old room sent him into the kind of heavy sleep that he’d experienced in his teen years. He roused slowly, hearing the tell-tale creak of feet on the stairs as he opened the bedroom door to head to the bathroom.

He was clad in a pair of old boxer shorts and a threadbare white t-shirt, hair mussed and eyes half-open.

That was how he first met Danny Williams.

He walked straight into the man’s space thanks to barely looking where he was going, stepping back and settling his body before it went on-guard.

“Hey,” the short blond guy said with a scowl. “Watch it.” His angry glare turned into a curious onceover and then all at once, he lit up like he’d suddenly realized something. “Oh, hey! You’re the guy, yeah? The prodigal son. Steven McGarrett,” he marveled, extending his hand excitedly. “I’m Danny Williams, I’m working with your Dad on this new case. He will _not_ shut up about you.”

“...my Dad?” Steve asked warily, wondering what twilight zone he had woken up in. Danny had claimed his hand and was shaking it thoroughly, even past what was usually the accepted length of time for a hand to be shaken. “I think maybe you’re mistaking my Dad for someone else.”

“Are you kidding?” Danny scoffed. “I could recite your high school football record at this point. Won’t shut up,” he insisted, using his hand to emphasize the last three words pointedly. “I heard you got in last night. You look like you went a couple rounds with something three times the size of you. You look, well, you look exhausted.”

“It’s been a long few months,” Steve conceded, alert enough now to really take in Danny.

He was shorter than Steve, shorter than most men Steve had met. But his eyes were also a brighter blue than most peoples, so Steve guessed that it all balanced out in the end. While there was an easygoing smile on his face, it looked like he was hiding a little bit of turmoil, judging from the way his eyes never seemed to brighten as much as the rest of his face. Steve took away two important things from his onceover.

First, that Danny looked absolutely ridiculous in his tie, shirt, pants, and loafer combination. It was like he _wanted_ to be spotted as law enforcement from a mile away.

Second, Steve really couldn’t find it in him to mind looking at Danny Williams.

“What is this?” Steve asked dubiously, reaching across the distance to press two fingers to the end of Danny’s tie, flicking it upwards and against his chin. “Are you serious with this?”

“What do you mean, ‘am I serious’, don’t I look serious?”

“You’re wearing a tie,” Steve said with heavy disdain. “In _Hawaii_.”

“I’d think I’d have heard if there was a law against looking good and professional.”

Danny really did look good, too. That was the kind of thought that Steve hadn’t entertained in over ten years. When his father shipped him away, Steve turned to the Navy. The fact that when Steve left the island, he left behind a boyfriend too, faded away in the face of serving a higher cause. Years of not asking and not telling had stripped Steve of a part of himself.

Coming home was dredging up more than just old memories.

“There you are,” a new voice entered the conversation.

Steve dropped Danny’s tie like it was a hot potato and looked over his shoulder. With great surprise, he found that he recognized the man. “Chin Ho Kelly,” Steve said with delight. “I haven’t seen you in...” Steve trailed off, speechless. He gave a broad laugh and stepped back one long stride from Danny, as if extra space would make the scene that Chin stumbled on less awkward.

“McGarrett says he found something in the wiretaps,” Chin said to Danny. “He wants you to take a look.”

“Be right there,” Danny shouted downstairs before turning his attention back to Steve. For a long pause, Danny did nothing but stare at him. Steve tried not to flush and stood at attention. “It was good to meet you, Steve. Guess I’ll be seeing you around?”

“Yeah,” Steve replied quickly (maybe too quickly, given how he seemed to jump all over Danny’s words). “Yeah, you will for a bit, yeah.”

Then, Danny was gone and Chin was still standing there.

“Howsit?” Chin asked with a lazy drawl. He was clearly amused, but Steve wasn’t sure what he was so pleased about. There was a determined look on his face, like he was trying to figure something out. For the life of him, Steve couldn’t figure out _what_. “I thought I heard that you joined the Navy.”

“I did,” Steve said.

“Well,” Chin replied, arching his brow and casting one last glance over his shoulder in the direction that Danny had gone. “Suits you well. You look good, McGarrett. Finally come home to give the old man a visit?”

Steve didn’t think that bringing strangers into their family issues was wise, so he kept quiet about the fact that he never wanted to leave in the first place. “I’ve got a mission that’s brought me back here. Until I crack the case, I’ll be staying with Dad.”

“Can’t say I’m too excited about the man who destroyed all my records being back,” Chin joked, “but I think I can make do. We should get a beer sometime,” he insisted. “You and me, we can catch up. And another time, we’ll go out and I’ll invite Danny. He might even come.”

He said it strangely, like there was something more going on there. Steve wondered what he was missing.

“You and Dad brought on a _haole_ , huh?” Steve wasn’t trying to be mean, but after seeing Danny, he wondered how anyone could _not_ bring it up.

Chin’s smile seemed almost sad. “You have to give him a break, brah,” he said. “There’s more to Danny Williams that he lets on. It’s not all smiles and cheer.” Steve latched onto the words and knew that he wasn’t going to press the issue immediately, but he wasn’t about to let it go, either. “Can’t believe you came back, Steve,” Chin said warmly, shaking his head. “I’m heading out with your Dad in a while to pursue a lead, but we’ll definitely make those plans.”

“You bet,” Steve agreed, smiling warmly and feeling about a hundred times better than he did when he got in the night before.

Plans with a friend and meeting Danny Williams put him in a strangely bright mood. It was only overshadowed by the reason behind his presence in Hawaii. He watched Chin head back downstairs before continuing along to the bathroom to clean up.

An hour and a half later, he was well-groomed, refreshed, and had his head buried in several maps, cross-referencing wiretaps that had been placed on the Hesse brothers. They were up to something in Oahu, he knew that much, and the best way to get information was to find out who they were allying themselves with. Victor and Anton Hesse weren’t likely to talk, even under Steve’s occasionally unique information-extraction techniques. He was sure that he could make a lower-level criminal talk until his voice was hoarse.

“Steven!” John’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

Steve glanced over to the clock and found he’d lost two hours with his mind deep in the case. “Yeah?” he called back, loud enough to be heard through the heavy doors of the house and down a story.

“I need a favor.”

That was enough to get Steve downstairs, where he leaned casually over the banister, arching a brow to wordlessly ask what it was his father wanted. He felt sixteen again almost immediately, as if he was in trouble for something he’d done, but wasn’t sure which _thing_ he’d done had gotten him in trouble.

Steve watched Chin packing up files, his father digging out a set of keys, and Danny leaning against the counter with a smile edged with trepidation. “Sorry about this,” Danny said.

“Sorry about...” Steve frowned, not sure what Danny was talking about. “Dad?”

“Do you mind driving Danny back home? We were supposed to, but there was an urgent call and Chin and I need to head into the precinct,” John said as he tossed car keys over to Steve, who caught them one-handed easily. Steve’s focus drifted to Danny, who was staring down at the ground.

“Why isn’t he going with you?”

“Family stuff,” Danny said simply, trying to avoid looking at Steve. Normally, Steve would find that behavior suspicious, but Danny wasn’t a suspect that Steve needed answers from.

Steve nodded, figuring that he could use a break. “Yeah, come on,” he agreed.

“I’ll call after I look into the wiretap and see if there’s anything worth pursuing there,” Danny promised, packing his things together with an edge of a rush.

“Williams,” John said. “Family first.”

Steve pretended not to have heard that. He pretended that he didn’t care. Most of all, he pretended that he wasn’t bordering on livid at his father’s presumption that he could throw around advice that he didn’t understand anything about. He clenched the keys tighter in his hand and nodded at the door.

“Come on, let’s go,” he snapped, storming out of the house without waiting to see if Danny was ready. He slammed the car door heavier than he needed to, but it felt good to have an outlet for his frustrations.

Danny didn’t look half as impressed with Steve’s antics. “What the hell is your problem?” he asked mildly, strapping on his seatbelt. “Not enough protein in your Army-diet or something?”

“Navy,” Steve corrected out of rote, gripping the steering wheel tightly with one hand as he reversed the car. “Where am I going?”

“I’m uh, I’m up in Kahala. And, not to rush you, because you’re already doing me a favor, but the sooner we get there the better,” Danny said.

Steve didn’t ask. He’d just met the man; he wasn’t in a position to pry.

They spent the drive in silence. When they arrived, Steve had to stop so that Danny could get out of the car and enter a code into a number pad, which unlocked a gate that led to a sprawling estate.

Steve had grown up on these shores and knew firsthand how expensive it could be to live in Hawaii. “Are you some kind of criminal on the side?” Steve asked with wonder, gaping up at the house. “How can you afford a place like this on a detective’s salary?”

Danny hadn’t bothered to put his seatbelt on again and was already opening the door, practically jumping out of the car. “Steve, I don’t mind explaining,” he said in a hurry, “but can we do it inside? Family emergency, and all.”

Steve had no actual _reason_ to need to stay, but he still put the car in park, wandering inside after Danny, feeling the hint of an ocean breeze in the lobby. He whistled low under his breath as he gaped at Danny’s digs, not at all expecting what happened next.

“Oh, thank god, you do realize I am a _stock broker_ , I am not your babysitter,” a man, taller than Danny, said as he hurried down the stairs, his arms wrapped around a heavy swath of blankets holding a tiny thing.

That tiny thing, Steve realized, was a baby. Steve watched the guy hold out the infant to Danny, who took the baby into his arms, curling it protectively closer.

“She’s a little hot, I wasn’t sure if she was feverish enough to call the doctor, and we don’t even have a doctor, so she’d be in the ER and seriously, Danny, when you said you’d move to Hawaii with me, I didn’t expect I’d be doing this.”

Steve tried to ignore the pit opening in his stomach when he realized that Danny was apparently with someone and was so serious about the relationship that they had kids. Steve tried not to let it affect him too badly. He’d only really noticed that Danny was attractive, and hadn’t pursued that thought so much as buried it deep.

He could deal with disappointment.

“Who’s this?” the guy asked.

“Oh, shipsticks, I forgot,” Danny muttered, the non-profanity so seamless and practiced that it seemed like he’d been doing it forever. “Mattie, meet Steve McGarrett. He’s John’s son. Steve, this is Matthew Williams, my brother.”

And just like that, the fantasies became open game once more.

“And that’s...?”

“This is Gracie Williams,” Danny said fondly, prying the blankets away from her face, rocking her and trying to quell her squealing as he pressed the backs of two fingers to Grace’s forehead, shushing her as he gently rocked her around the lobby.

Steve was so occupied with staring at the display of affection that it took him longer than usual to realize that Matt was gaping suspiciously at him.

“Danny, already?” Matt commented.

“Hey, shut your mouth, he’s just a friend,” Danny said instantly. “Hey, Grace, you’re meeting new people and you’re getting sick for it?”

She looked so little. It was all Steve could think as he stared at father and daughter. While Danny was busy with tending to her, Steve tried to seek out a wedding ring that he might have missed, or a chain that bore some kind of commitment to a woman, but he couldn’t find anything.

“Even now, you gotta be your mother’s child. Difficult,” Danny murmured with great fondness. “Matt, I’m gonna watch her for a couple hours. You go do whatever it is you do. Take over the world, move some money, yell about shares into a phone. Whatever keeps us in these digs, I give you permission,” Danny offered, bowing his head to press a fond kiss to Grace’s forehead.

She seemed calmer now. When Matt brought her downstairs, she seemed like little more than a fussy baby, but now that Danny had her in his arms, she was an entirely different child.

“So, you live with your brother?” Steve asked softly, not wanting to be too loud and ruin the silence.

“I’m from Jersey, originally. That’s where I met my wife,” Danny said, not even bothering to take his eyes off Grace as he spoke. “But there was an accident,” he said with a pained look on his face, a rueful smile on his lips. “Rachel was from England and she wasn’t really used to driving on the right side of the road. This truck came out of nowhere, and...” Danny took a deep breath and stared down at the child in his arms. “That was eight months ago. I’ve got three sisters in addition to Mattie, but they’re older and they have their own families. So when Matt decided to move out here for some of his more influential clients, I came with. I couldn’t take being in a city where I had reminders of her at every turn. Everywhere I looked, I was seeing ghosts. I couldn’t do it.”

Chin’s words made a lot more sense to Steve now. He stood there, frozen, and didn’t think he would be able to move if he wanted to.

“So you’re raising her on your own?” Steve asked. “I mean, with Matt, obviously. But...” He shook his head, trying to get away from that train of thought before it led him back down a dark path - suddenly Steve was remembering his own father’s attempts to raise a family. “How old is she?”

“Fourteen months, now,” Danny said proudly, brushing back her blankets with his fingers. “Gracie, babe, say hi to Steve. He’s Danny’s new friend,” he whispered and brought her closer.

Steve felt paralyzed. He’d never been good at taking care of kids. He’d even been bad at taking care of Mary and she was his sister. This was brand new territory and all he could muster was an awkward wave of his fingers at the baby. Grace stared back up at him with wide brown eyes. Since Danny’s were so intensely blue, Steve had to assume that was one of the traits she inherited from her mother, seeing as her hair was as bright and blond as Danny’s.

“You’re not so good with kids, are you?” Danny asked, smirking.

“I can be good with kids,” Steve insisted defensively.

“Babe, you’re practically quaking in your size thirteen Rambo boots,” Danny said. “And all I’ve done is hold her _near_ you. Remind me never to actually let you babysit her.”

“I’m good with kids!”

Danny clearly didn’t believe him. In reality, no, he really wasn’t the best example of a kid-friendly guy, but he had meant to change that, one day.

Steve thought about the work waiting for him in a big and empty house and chose to think of Danny Williams instead. When it came down to it, he knew that the Hesse brothers could wait a few more hours, especially if he worked into the night.

“Do you care if I stick around?” Steve asked suddenly. “I mean, I can help. I can warm baby bottles and test them and I don’t tire easily. I’m pretty sure I’m a match for a baby’s endurance.”

He earned a suspicious look from Danny at the suggestion, but he didn’t get an immediate ‘no’, which was something.

“Mattie, you want the night off from Grace-duty?” Danny called upstairs.

“Do I?” Matt called back excitedly. “There’s this girl I met at the Hilton, she’s a Polynesian dancer, and...”

“Please don’t say anymore, you’re my baby brother, I can’t take the mental images. Go! I got Grace tonight and I got some company,” Danny said, not taking his eyes off of Steve. He still looked mildly suspicious, but he was agreeing. “I got help. Go, seduce your lady. Don’t make a ruckus when you get back in.”

“You do remember that I pay for three quarters of this house,” Matt pointed out as he fiddled with his tie. Danny shifted Grace into one arm and reached across the space between them to help him fix it, causing Steve to try and subdue his smile.

“What?” Both of the Williams brothers echoed at once.

“The tie thing is genetic?” Steve asked, innocent as he ever got.

“Ignore him, he’s an idiot,” Danny said blithely. “Go. Go have fun.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Matt said eagerly, bending down to press a kiss to Grace’s forehead with a loud smacking noise. “Grace, don’t let your dad do anything rash or silly!”

“Get outta here, you goof,” Danny shouted after him, adjusting Grace back into his arms. “Steve, beer?”

Steve glanced up from staring at the baby and wondering if his father ever held him or Mary with such love and reverence. He tried to shake the depressing thoughts and forced a smile. “Yeah, sure,” he agreed. “I don’t know if this is hard to talk about, so you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. How long were you and your wife married?”

“Rachel and I were hitched for three years. She hit me with her car, said she needed driving lessons, and I always put them off to have coffee dates with her instead,” Danny said with a fond smile. “Anyway, you do that long enough and you have enough coffee dates and eventually, it’s inevitable to walk down the aisle. Then we had Grace. A couple months later, I’m waking up to an empty bed and eating tuna casserole from her wake. It was the most sobering moment of my whole goddamn life.”

Danny took a deep breath, handing the bottle of beer over to Steve, who took it with a quiet ‘thanks’.

“What about you, huh? Ever been married? Ever thought about it?”

“I can’t say that I have,” Steve admitted, lips pressed around the cool neck of the beer bottle. “I joined the Navy as soon as I could. I had one real relationship in high school and then a couple aborted ones in the Navy. I guess when Dad shipped me away, I turned my mind to work.”

Danny had a funny look on his face, like Steve had just said something incredibly confusing. Or maybe Steve just had something on his face.

“What?” Steve asked warily. “What is it?”

“Shipped you away?”

“He didn’t mention that, huh?” Steve muttered, pressing his lips together tightly, unable to be too excited about the fact that his family history was anything but perfect. “When I was sixteen, I lost my mother. My father’s way of coping was to send me and Mary to different parts of the mainland. Until yesterday, I hadn’t seen him in ten years. He didn’t even want me back,” Steve said.

“I don’t buy it,” Danny said, after a momentary pause. “No, I don’t. I’ve been here for a couple months and like I said, the guy never shuts up about you. He is so proud,” Danny said, emphasizing the words. “It doesn’t jive with a dad who doesn’t care about his kids. No. Something else has gotta be going on.”

“How are you taking his side?” Steve demanded heatedly.

Danny slid his hand under Grace’s back and supported her, heading to the couch to sit down and get comfortable. “In all fairness to the man, I have known him longer.”

“Is he the one in your house drinking your beer?” Steve asked.

“Actually, yeah, he came over two days ago,” was Danny’s amused response. “Look, Steve, you seem like a good guy. I mean, we’re getting along, but I don’t get the read that your Dad is the abandoning type without good reason. Give him a chance, is all I’m saying. Chin seems to like him, I like him. Yeah, sometimes he goes creepy-scary with that laser-focus of his, but as far as faults go? It’s better than his severe distrust of HPD.”

That pulled a few warning bells. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. It’s just weird. Chin says it’s just John being eccentric, but he refuses to let us go through HPD until we run it by him. And even if we do go to the precinct, sometimes he has us send fake intel, too. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that he’s convinced there’s a mole somewhere in the department, but I haven’t seen anything to line up with that,” Danny said, rocking Grace gently. “He’s a great cop, though. I’m willing to entertain a crazy notion or two.”

Steve exhaled heavily. It still didn’t excuse all the years without explanation, and Steve wasn’t ready to give up his beliefs just because Danny had his own opinions. He set the beer on the table and perched on the edge of the couch, leaning in to brush his index finger against the blankets.

Grace kicked her tiny feet and peered at him with wide eyes, shoving her fist into her mouth.

“She’s so calm,” he observed with wonder. “Is she always like this?”

“Yeah. Grace has always been a quiet kid, even when she was a newborn crying her lungs out for food or changing,” Danny said fondly, tucking the blanket tighter around her and testing her forehead. “Temperature seems to be coming down, too. Maybe it’s just Hawaii. Maybe she’s having a hard time adjusting, just like her Daddy.”

“You don’t like it here?”

“Am I like Matt? No. No, Matthew Williams is out there enjoying the nightlife and the whole island. Me? I don’t like living in a place that has tsunamis and jellyfish and pineapple. It’s a decent fruit, but why do people wanna put it in everything? Especially pizza, that is a crime, a crime against food,” Danny insisted.

“I’m pretty sure they weren’t doing it with you in mind,” Steve said, amused.

“Yeah, well, it’s gross, is what it is. I appreciate this place for its beauty and I love that Matt loves it, but if I had my way, I’d be in New York City. I just can’t afford that and I need the free babysitting that my Wall Street brother gets me,” Danny said, his thumb brushing circles against the fuzz of Grace’s hair.

Steve stared at Grace until he felt like he was being rude for looking too long and instead lifted his gaze to stare at Danny instead. That might have been a bigger mistake, getting caught in the fond and adoring look in Danny’s eyes and the way it softened his whole face. Steve hadn’t been with a man in so long, thanks to his choices, but in that moment, he wanted Danny more than he wanted anything else.

He could blame being at home. He could blame the strange off-kilter feeling he had since he got back. Mostly, he didn’t want to blame anything.

He wanted to wrap his fist up in Danny’s tie, yank him closer, and kiss him until he was breathless.

Grace gave a light coo and reminded Steve of exactly why he wasn’t going to do that. Danny was a single father, grieving, and was still, for the most part, a mystery to Steve. He didn’t need a guy like Steve McGarrett complicating his life.

“So,” Steve said, relaxing back and trying to shake the image of bending Danny over the kitchen table, “tell me more about your family. How come you’re not with your other siblings?”

Which started Danny in on a long and colorful diatribe complete with big swooping hand gestures. He talked and talked, in such a comforting lull that it put Steve into a relaxed state and sent Grace into a peaceful doze, safe in her father’s arms.

Steve didn’t know everything about Danny, but from what he had learned, he couldn’t help but feel pulled towards him, magnetized towards this outspoken and brash _haole_. It was more than he expected in coming back home, he knew that much.

* * *

It was seven in the morning and a cloudburst had just cleared up when Danny turned up at the McGarrett house, out of breath and soaked to the skin. Steve kept a firm grip on the door and stared at Danny a moment longer than probably necessary, letting his mind drift to indecent places.

At least, right up until Danny barged inside. “The cases, yours and ours,” he said, trying to catch his breath. “They’re intertwined.”

“What? That’s impossible,” Steve said, brow furrowed. He sought out a towel and offered it to Danny, even though he would’ve preferred Danny to stay wet. It was the start of Steve’s fourth week in Oahu as of that morning and he had precious few leads. He was running out of time and before long, it was inevitable that he would be replaced.

John’s case had been seeing slow progress as well, but they needed someone on the inside for their case against a group of human-traffickers and were having issues coming up with someone that they wouldn’t know. It all fell back down to the island being too small.

“Danny, that doesn’t make any sense,” Steve protested. “How can our cases be related? You’re looking into gun-smuggling and human trafficking. I’m dealing with two terrorists.”

“How do you think they got into Hawaii unnoticed, Steve?” Danny asked, more serious than he’d ever been in the weeks that Steve had known him. Steve swallowed hard, trying not to turn the moment into something shallow where he noticed how _good_ serious looked on Danny. “Get inside. Chin’s on his way, and your Dad said he just needs a couple minutes. I need to get Grace out of the car, but then we all need to talk.”

Steve lit up. “Grace is here?”

“Yeah,” Danny said, amused. He held his keys up in the air and jangled them in front of Steve like he was a cat. “The door’s open. Matt’s just getting her ready. You wanna go get her?”

Steve didn’t need asking twice. He grabbed at the keys and bounded down the steps, lifting a hand to wave to Matt from a decent distance. When he got closer to the car, he let the keys fly, getting them over to Matt so that he could reach inside the car and unbuckle Grace from her carrier, lifting her up into his arms.

Three weeks and plenty of time with Danny had managed to do a number on Steve’s affections. He was getting good at denying any kind of attraction, but his fondness for Grace was hard to hide. Besides, he didn’t want to. He lifted her up in his arms, supporting her back and grinning as she tugged on his hair. “Sh-ee!” she babbled, while he carried her in a wide circle and swayed her back and forth.

“I swear, you could score so much action like that,” Matt said with a sad look on his face. “I’ve tried. It’s that line you have to straddle between devoted father and father who can get a night away from his kid and I am so bad at it. _So_ bad. Also, never tell Danny I said any of this.”

“Said what?” Danny asked, coming up behind Steve. “Hey, what’s with this? Monkey, you liking another man better than me?” he asked, poking at Grace’s nose from over Steve’s shoulder. “Are you okay watching her for about twenty? Chin’s still on his way and your Dad is raring at the bit to go over some files. It’s not exactly baby-friendly. Twenty minutes? She might need to be changed.”

“Danny, I’ve done a lot of dirty things,” Steve said. “I can change one diaper.”

Danny stared at him for a long moment, as if he was considering whether Steve was capable of the task. Steve tried to screw up his resolve, curling Grace tighter into his arms.

“I can,” Steve insisted.

“Twenty minutes,” Danny said, but then he was pushing the changing bag into Steve’s hands, heading out onto the lanai to see what John wanted to go over.

Steve was left with Grace. He looked down at her, wondering if all children were so blissfully free of worries. He bounced her gently and tucked the blanket around her tighter. “Come on, if I don’t change you, your Dad is gonna say some mean words to me,” Steve said, pulling a face to make her giggle.

He brought her into Mary’s room and smoothed out the surface of the bed, laying down an old blanket from Mary’s closet atop the patchwork quilt. The bag on one side, Steve slowly sat down and placed Grace reverently down on the blanket. He still felt awkward with her sometimes, though he wouldn’t admit it. She was so small, and not even remotely his, and it made his chest fill up with too many feelings to name.

Grace was quiet as ever, fingers pressed to her mouth so she could suckle at them while Steve unclasped the buttons of her onesie, going through the motions that he had seen Danny perform a dozen times by now. Once she was all clean, the old diaper disposed of, and she was redressed, all Steve could do was stare.

She kicked out her feet and lifted both hands towards him, palms splayed and ten tiny little fingers in the air. Steve slid his palm atop and matched them, big for small, marvelling at the difference between them and how her smallness would only ever be temporary. He and Mary had been this small once. His father and his mother had been in the same position Steve had been in.

Life always went on.

Grace shifted and wrapped her fingers around Steve’s pinky, clasping on tight as she could and pulling it in so she could suck on it. It made Steve laugh and feel lighter in spirit than he had since he got home.

“I may not know what the heck to do about your Dad, but you’re easy,” Steve said, staring fondly at how small and beautiful and perfect she was. Her hair was darkening slightly, as if in direct contrast to how much sun she was getting in Hawaii. “Give you my finger and you’ll love me for life.”

He slid a palm under her back and splayed it where he could support the head, bringing her into his arms to tote her back downstairs.

“Grace would like to know if her father is ready for her,” Steve said, heading out to the lanai. He had been working out there alongside his father before Danny’s sudden arrival and announcement.

Danny looked up from the papers, shoved a heavy set of headphones away, and was on his feet instantly. “Look at that, all cleaned up,” Danny said with a bright grin, taking her back into his arms. For a too-brief moment, he was crowded in Steve’s personal space. He was so close that Steve could smell his aftershave and hair gel.

Their fingers brushed briefly when Steve handed Grace back and he glanced down and away to avoid anyone seeing his pleased reaction. When he looked back up, his father had a knowing look on his face that said Steve hadn’t been as discreet as he’d intended.

“Okay, Danny,” Steve said, willing to jump to a different topic before things got too awkward. “Why are you telling me that the cases are involved with one another? What did you find?”

“Doran led us to a guy called Sang Min. He’s an up-and-comer, hasn’t done much yet,” Danny said, shifting Grace in one arm so he could reach down and slide two pieces of paper out from the large pile. “But he gets people into the country. We’re looking at him for human trafficking, but wouldn’t you know, look what popped up,” he said with heavy sarcasm.

Steve leaned in to take a closer look at the pieces of paper.

They were photocopies of passports and the pictures were unmistakable: Victor and Anton Hesse.

“Your guy knows about my guys,” Steve said, finally seeing a break in his case.

It was what they needed to get both of the cases going. Chin arrived ten minutes later with more evidence, and the hours seemed to fly by as they started to match information. Steve had documents that were useful to the HPD investigation and they had evidence in turn.

By the time the sun had gone down, John was lighting candles on the lanai, and Grace was down for a nap. Steve could see his next move clearly and he was on the phone to his superiors to brief them about the information. Chin, meanwhile, was talking with some mainland departments who could send someone in for an undercover task.

It seemed like there was hope.

“You boys should take the night off,” John suggested, blowing out the match when he finished with the last tiki-torch. “Tomorrow morning, we’re going to be hitting the pavement harder than ever. You might as well go out. Be young.”

Danny shrugged apologetically. “I’ve got Grace, I can’t...”

“My cousin can babysit, brah,” Chin interrupted before Danny could even finish. “She’s great with kids.”

“How old?” Danny demanded.

“Seventeen. She’s been babysitting since she was thirteen and she’s responsible.” Chin pulled a face that Steve interpreted as ‘most of the time’. “I’ll put the fear of Danny Williams into her.”

“I haven’t said yes, yet,” Danny said, throwing both hands up in the air like he was helpless.

Steve leaned over from compiling folders and files for his investigation and stared up at Danny with a desperate and pleading look. While they had managed to find plenty of time to have beers at Danny’s place, they still hadn’t been able to get out. He exchanged a look with Chin that was bordering on amused and diabolical and knew that he had extra firepower in this. “Danny, please,” Steve said. “Come out with Chin and me. His cousin...”

“Kono,” Chin supplied.

“Kono can babysit. The Kelly-Kalakaua family chain is responsible, I know that much,” Steve swore, watching as his father hid a smirk behind a hand. “Come on. Beers with the guys at a bar, we’ll even bribe the bartender to put on whatever team closest to Jersey is playing.”

Danny’s resolve seemed to be faltering, though his grip on Grace remained as protective as ever. Steve imagined that if he were in Danny’s shoes, he’d be in the same position. Losing a wife was hard enough, but it gave just the glimmer of what might happen if you also lost your kid on the heels of that.

Suddenly, Steve was starting to realize that he might be seeing his father’s side of the story in full and vivid technicolor for the first time in his life.

“Danny,” Steve begged again. “One drink.”

He intended to keep Danny around for much more than that, but they could start with one and talk about the case, then move onto more and talk about whatever came up. Steve leaned over and tugged Grace’s small fingers with his own, giving them a tiny wiggle. Chin leaned in closer to their tight circle and raised his brows.

“Ladies?” Chin interrupted. “Are we going?”

Danny gnawed on his lower lip. “Fine, do it. Call Kono and we’ll go out.”

Thirty minutes later, John was packing away all the papers for the night and Steve had changed into a crisp white button-down, black trousers, and a good suit jacket. The door bell had been rung and Danny was downstairs briefing Kono, but Chin was upstairs, pausing outside Steve’s bedroom door.

“Looks good, brah,” Chin said with a low whistle. “What’s the occasion?”

“I’m twenty-six and I’ve been cooped up with paperwork for a month,” Steve replied. It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was close. There was a part of him that wanted to impress Danny and prove that he could wear more than just t-shirts and cargo pants. He tucked his phone and his wallet into his back pocket along with his keys, nudging Chin at the shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go get Jersey a little tipsy.”

He bounded down the steps, intending to say a goodbye to Grace before they left, but before he could get to the back door, his father stopped him in the kitchen.

“Do you really think this is a good idea, Steve?” John asked, his tone deceptively light.

Back in high school, Steve had never made a point of hiding his relationships, whether with girls or guys. Neither his mother nor his father had ever cared, so Steve had to think past the obvious to wonder why his father had reservations.

“Dad, it’s just drinks.”

“If you say so,” John replied.

“Besides, why would it be a bad idea?” Steve asked, his stubborn streak starting to flare.

“You’re leaving soon,” John said. “You’re leaving and he’s going to be here, raising his little girl. Don’t get tangled up and leave the knot behind for other people to unravel. I’m glad to see you and Danny getting along. Leave it that way unless you’re willing to make a good number of changes in your life, which, I don’t think you are, son.”

Steve tensed up his jaw. “One day, Dad, you’re going to have to admit that you don’t know better than me. Not anymore.”

With a bad mood hanging over his shoulders, he brushed past his father on the way to the lanai where a pretty young girl was crouched over the baby carrier, wiggling her fingers and talking rapidly and excitedly to Grace.

“Kono,” Steve greeted, finally recognizing her. “Without your bikini on, I barely know you. What were you, _seven_ the last time I saw you?”

“I rocked it, even back then,” Kono said with a knowing look and a wink Danny’s way. “Hey, Steve, you’re looking pale, brah! What’s the world done to you?”

“Nothing Oahu isn’t fixing,” he said, stepping forward to pull her into a tight hug. “So, Chin tells me that you’re a five-star babysitter?”

Kono nodded seriously, hand to her heart. “I’ve been informed that if anything happens to my charge, I’ll be driven off the island by boards with nails in them.”

“Hey, what am I, a monster?” Danny said mildly. “I’d at least do it with nice new pitchforks.” He smirked, turning to Grace and leaning in to brush a loving kiss to her cheek. “You be good, little miss. I don’t want to hear any stories about misbehaving, okay, Monkey?”

Grace kicked her feet and let out a squeal of a cry. “That means yes,” Steve interpreted, leaning in and wrapping one hand around Danny’s bicep to use for leverage as he leaned in to brush Grace’s hair from off her forehead.

“I’ll be back by two, at the latest,” Danny said to Kono, digging out some money from his wallet. “This is for dinner, I’ll get you money for payment when I get back in.”

Steve relinquished his grasp on Danny, digging out his cell phone to call for a cab while Danny said a prolonged goodbye to Grace and got to know Kono a little better. He took lazy steps and made it to the porch where Chin was waiting, hands in his pockets.

“So, your girlfriend isn’t going to mind you going out with the boys?” Steve asked, straining his memory to recall the name of the girl Chin was dating. “Malia, right? In med school?”

“She’s in her first year of residency,” Chin replied proudly. “And no, she’s actually happy. She has the night off and she says it’ll give her the chance to actually have some peace and quiet. I think I’m missing out on a bubble bath.”

“She sounds great,” Steve said. “She sounds...”

“Intelligent, beautiful, independent, funny,” Chin offered words to fill in the blanks. “Perfect?”

“I think you may be a little blinded by your affections,” Steve noted apologetically.

Chin beamed away like it didn’t matter. “I could say the same for you.” Steve opened his mouth to protest that nothing was going on, but Chin beat him to it. “Grace. I never imagined you were the kind of guy who liked kids. Do you want them?”

“I’ve had exactly two girlfriends while in the Navy,” Steve said. “One of them dumped me years ago and got married. The other told me she’d prefer it if we were friends with benefits. And I like Catherine, so I’m willing to do whatever she tells me we’re going to do.”

“So you’re not here permanently, then,” Chin said. “For sure?”

“I follow whatever orders come in and this is the first time they’ve brought me even remotely close to home. Short of leaving the service,” Steve said with a shrug. “I go where they tell me. I can’t plant deep roots here.”

The cab turned up the street, headlights casting a path on the front lawn. When it got to the head of the driveway, Steve leaned inside to knock on the door.

“Danny, finish up that tenth goodbye of yours, we’re going!”

Steve actually felt good about this. Even if he wasn’t sure what he wanted out of Danny, he knew that a night out on the town couldn’t hurt. He intended to get a little bit drunk, throw his cares to the wind, and work as hard as he possibly could in the morning.

They went to a local bar on the beach where Chin covered the first few rounds. They talked procedure for a while, Steve shared stories of the world, and inevitably they got around to talking about family. “So, what about you, Chin Ho?” Danny asked over the music, nursing his third beer of the night. “You and Malia thinking about getting hitched, having tiny little adorable Kelly babies?”

Chin lifted both hands in innocent protest. “You’re in league with my mother, aren’t you?”

“She’s a wise woman who makes incredible malasadas,” Danny admitted, leaning towards Steve and resting half his weight on Steve’s body. “Seriously,” Danny said, giving Steve a look from his shoulder’s height. “You have got to try them sometime. I swear to god, I didn’t weigh this much when I first got here.”

“That is a lie. Your brother told me you lived on a steady diet of pizza and greasy foods,” Chin accused.

“And this is why I don’t let Mattie talk to strangers,” Danny said, shifting upwards and taking a long sip. “Hey, Steve, Steven,” he said, tapping his shoulder rapidly to get his attention. “You got girls looking your way and eyehumping you. Three o’clock.”

“Eyehumping?” Steve echoed. “Is that even a thing?”

“Come on, go, you’re here on leave, might as well score some action. Besides, you got all dressed up for it and everything,” Danny said, tweaking the lapel of his jacket.

 _That’s not why I got dressed up_ , Steve thought, but didn’t say. It was good to know that yes, officially, he dressed up for Danny and not for anyone else, but it complicated matters. Danny seemed determined to get Steve to go and talk to the women, which meant that if nothing else, Danny thought Steve was straight.

And why shouldn’t he? The Navy did a good job of making sure everyone thought as much.

“I’m good, thanks,” Steve said dismissively, turning a brief smile to Danny. “Unless you want to take a crack at them...” He gestured with his bottle over to the two women, trying to cast out a line for information to see if Danny would bite and Steve could figure out whether he swung that way.

“Nah, I told Kono I’d be back at two,” Danny said. “Have to be responsible when you’re a father.”

“You ever regret that?” Chin asked suddenly. “I mean, you’re what, twenty-six now, so that means...”

“It means that Rachel and I got pregnant when I was twenty-four and she was twenty-two,” Danny cut him off. “And no. To answer your question, no. I don’t for a single moment regret having a child. I wanted a whole brood, me and Rach. I mean, sure, we had our fights about my job, but we loved each other. We were supposed to be forever.” Danny stared down into his drink and the atmosphere was officially growing too maudlin for Steve.

“Hey, come on, Danny, you have to be back by two, but who says you can’t dance?”

“I think the council for White Men of America says that,” Danny said dubiously. “Do not make me prove that I don’t have rhythm, McGarrett.”

“Want me to go first, is that it?” Steve asked with a mischievous smirk on his face. He rose to his feet, offering a hand out to Danny with one behind his back, forming the picture of a consummate gentleman.

Danny gaped at him like he was insane. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“You’re only young once, Kono is watching Grace. Tonight, you’re not a Dad. You’re just a hot young guy with girls staring at him,” Steve said, leaning down to forcibly grab at Danny’s hand and pull him to his feet. “Come on, Danny. You’re too attractive and incredible and funny to be sitting here on your own.”

Chin was looking up at the table and giving Steve a curious look. Steve took the opportunity to push Danny to the dance floor.

“Go! I’ll be there in two seconds,” Steve promised. Danny reluctantly crossed the distance and Steve couldn’t help a self-satisfied grin when the two women who were staring immediately left the bar to make Danny a much less lonely man. While that was going on, Steve was going to take the opportunity to find out why Chin was giving him _that_ look. “What?” he demanded, folding his arms over his chest.

“Does Danny know you play for both teams?” Chin asked. “I’m just curious. I know you’re leaving soon, but the way you’re taking a crack at him, I’d think you had designs to get him between your sheets. It’s either that or it’s deeper, which is even more problematic given that you’re leaving soon and he has a kid.”

“Chin, it’s harmless,” Steve assured. “And no, Danny doesn’t know that I go both ways. It’s not relevant information because he and I are _friends_.”

“Okay,” Chin said, but he didn’t sound very convinced. “You gonna go out there and dance?”

Danny seemed to have found some rhythm, grinding in between both women and looking pretty pleased with himself. Steve sat back down with his beer and a bright grin on his face. “Why?” Steve asked, his good mood apparent from his tone. “He’s having fun, that was my only goal.” He laughed harder when Danny glanced over and raised both brows in a cocky little move. “He can manage without me.”

Chin didn’t reply and Steve took it as a sign of benevolence, that they were finally putting the conversation to rest. From there, they both slowed down on the drinking to the point that by the time Chin left to go back home to Malia at midnight, he was mostly sober. Steve saw him off and Danny came with, lingering outside the bar where the smokers were congregated on the patio.

“You want to head off, too?” Steve asked. “I can call a cab?”

“One more drink,” Danny said, cuffing Steve and dragging him forcibly inside. “Just one more, c’mon, Navy.” He didn’t stop pulling him until they reached the bar, at which point Danny grabbed hold of Steve’s shoulders and sat him down, remaining standing above him. “Two Longboards,” he ordered, sliding a ten on the table. “Keep the change.”

Steve was feeling incredibly good and relaxed. He had the feeling that Danny’s presence was a big contributor to that fact. He let the tension flow out of his shoulders, not minding one bit when Danny didn’t bother to take one hand off of Steve’s shoulders.

“So, you ready for this fight?” Danny asked. “Can’t imagine it’s gonna be an easy one. We’ve got the scum of humanity coming in from all corners of the earth on this. Drugs, guns, bombs, all the fun corners of criminal bingo.”

“I’ve been dealing with the scum of the earth for a long time, but you’re just a detective from Jersey...”

“Hey!” Danny interrupted defensively, a laugh on his lips. “I’ve got thirty-three homicide cases under my belt!” he protested with wide eyes. “ _Just_ a detective from Jersey? I’ve seen the worst humanity has to offer, all because they don’t like the TV channel or their marriage has gone south. You think terrorists are worse than seeing what your next-door neighbor can be reduced to? Think again, Navy. I’m ready for this. I’m ready for whatever’s coming next.”

Steve stared up at Danny and maybe it was just the booze, but he had a newfound respect for the man. He already loved his daughter and found Danny attractive, but there was so much more beneath the surface and Steve caught himself wanting to stick around to find out more.

That wasn’t an option.

The minute that Steve put the Hesse brothers behind bars, he’d be gone to a far-off country to do right for his government. He had spent eight years doing it, and for eight years it was a life that had taken care of him. He wasn’t about to abandon it just because he _thought_ he’d met someone worth quitting for.

“Here’s to fighting the good fight,” Steve said, lifting the neck of his beer bottle up.

Danny started laughing, sputtering out chuckles and wiping away at a tear. “Are you serious?” he wheezed out. “Oh, god, you are so lame sometimes, it is a lucky thing you’re attractive,” he lamented, but he clinked his bottle against Steve’s nonetheless. “Here’s to putting away some assholes behind bars.”

Steve hated to admit it, but that did have a better ring to it.

“And to Gracie,” Steve added, a little softer.

“And to my little girl,” Danny agreed, swaying in just that much closer to Steve and staring at him. “You really like her, don’t you? I thought you were crap with kids, but I was wrong. You’ve turned out to be really good with her.”

“She’s a great kid,” Steve admitted. “And she has a great Dad.”

“I dunno, you say that now, but you spend some time with me...”

“I don’t think that would change my mind,” Steve interrupted, wanting to stop Danny’s martyr-act before it even got started. “I’ve spent three steady weeks with you. I’ve liked what I’ve seen, I can extrapolate that I’d like what I see past that.”

“Extrapolate? Steve the Brainiac,” Danny shook his head and gestured at him. “You’re leaving soon, so what does it matter if I’m crappy or great or whatever you want to say about me?”

“Because it matters.” Steve didn’t know why, but he felt like he had to make sure it was known. “It matters that you know how great you are, that you deserve the very best because you and Grace, you deserve to be loved by someone who’s equally as great.” And it didn’t have to be Steve, it wasn’t even _going_ to be Steve, but it had to be someone good. “Promise me that it’ll be someone great.”

“Steve, I’m...” Danny looked flustered as he set the half-empty bottle on the bar. “I’m not even really looking. I mean, yeah, sure, I’ve thought about what’ll happen when I move on, but it’s not a concrete thing.”

“Just promise me you won’t settle,” Steve said. “For Grace. Promise me.”

“Will you leave it alone if I do?”

“I swear,” Steve said.

“Then yeah, fine, we will wait for someone amazing to come along, someone of your caliber, Captain America,” Danny muttered, draining off the last of his beer and sliding the empty over the counter. He squeezed his hand on Steve’s shoulder tighter. “C’mon, speaking of the Monkey, I don’t want to leave her with Kono too long.”

“They’re fine,” Steve assured him.

“Yeah,” Danny sighed out the word. “But I’m not. I don’t like being apart from her this long. Even now.”

That was all he had to say. Steve didn’t argue a single second more, calling a cab for the both of them and making sure that they got safely back to the McGarrett family home. Danny dug out his car keys and stared at them, the cab, and then the house in turns.

“Don’t even think about going anywhere,” Steve ordered. “You and Grace can stay here tonight. We both know you’ll be here by eight tomorrow morning, anyway. You can borrow some of my clothes and we have Grace’s changing bag.”

“Yeah,” Danny said, sounding a bit unsure. “Yeah, I guess.”

That was all that Steve needed to be certain that Danny would be safe for the evening. They were heading into unknown territory and Steve had no idea what was coming next, but he was at least assured that before the morning came, the things he cared most about in Hawaii were safe under one roof.


	2. a brush with the devil can clear your mind

Steve’s voicemail had twenty messages.

In the course of any regular day, he could amass a handful, but usually no more than five. He had turned his phone off while he made his way through as many seedy bars as possible, looking for information on the rumor that the Hesse brothers were under someone else’s employ. At four-fifteen, he turned his phone back on and found the full inbox.

Something had obviously happened.

The first seven messages were all from Matt, the next few were from his father, there were some from Chin, and then there was one number in there that was suspicious. It showed only as Blocked ID.

He dialled that one first.

“Who is this, what’s going on?” Steve demanded when he heard the tell-tale click of someone on the other end picking up. He could hear heavy breathing and the scrape of something like furniture against the floor, but no one spoke. Not yet.

Steve gripped the phone tighter in his hand, digging the keys for the truck out of his pocket and setting off for the house in the belief that his father and Chin would be there, at least. He could call Matt after.

Even though he refused to believe his deepest fears, he had a feeling he knew why Danny’s number wasn’t amidst the others in his message bank, but he refused to jump to any kind of conclusion.

“I’m glad you’ve been making friends, Steve.” Steve’s posture straightened as if something icy had brushed his spine.

“Victor Hesse,” he breathed out.

“Anton, too, but he’s a little occupied. Your friend is putting up quite the fight. Much more of this and we might just forego the ropes and cut off his arms. It’d be a shame, though. It’s hard to hold your little girl if you haven’t got any arms,” Victor said.

Steve gunned the accelerator, one hand on the wheel as he kept an eye out for oncoming traffic. “Danny Williams has nothing to do with this.”

“You’re somewhat mistaken in that, Steven,” Victor said, his voice growing cooler. “Danny Williams is closer to this than you think. He’s the only one who found his way to our doorstep. Really, it was unavoidable that we take him. It’s just lucky that the two of you are getting so close. It means that when we kill him, it hurts you. That helps.”

Steve gripped the wheel tighter, his knuckles going white. “Victor, I swear to god, if you touch a hair on his head...”

“Protective of him, aren’t we? I’m not surprised. You’ve taking a shining to that little girl of his. And how is she?”

Steve fought the impulse to hang up and call Matt just to make sure that Grace was safe. The longer that he was on the line, the longer that he could run the tactical app that the Navy had put on his phone, to track down calls to the exact latitude and longitude if he could extend the call time. It was new enough technology that the Hesse brothers probably didn’t know about it, but their ignorance wasn’t a guarantee.

“This isn’t about Grace and it’s not about Detective Williams,” Steve countered, slamming the car into park and shoving the car door shut with fury and determination. He stormed up the front walk of the house, not stopping until he got to the study where Chin and his father were waiting. “Tell me what you want.”

“Ten million.”

Steve paused -- namely to think about whether he would be able to get his hands on that kind of money, just in case, but also to elongate the phone call. “And if I get you the money, you’ll release Danny?”

“I can’t make promises, Steve,” Victor said. “It would make me very unhappy to break a promise. It’s very unkind of you to put me in that sort of position.”

Steve ran a hand through his hair, hating the helpless feeling that came of not being able to control Danny’s fate, even though if he were there, he could stop this instantly. He needed this to go on just a little longer. If he had a location, they could put together tactics and Steve could call in a team. They just needed a little longer.

“Ten million, that’s it?”

“And safe passage off the island, of course,” Anton said. “Danny says hello. He’s a real spunky lad, that one. It’d be a shame to have to take him away from you, just when the two of you are getting so close.”

“How will I contact you when I have the money?”

“You won’t,” Victor replied. “You have twenty-four hours. In twenty-two, we’ll contact you with a meeting place.” The line went dead after that.

Steve pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it for a moment, to calm his panicked thoughts. He grabbed hold of a USB cord, jamming it into the phone, and connecting it to the laptop to run the program and trace the location of the call. He had to focus on finding Danny. If he stopped for a single second, he might not be able to go on.

“Chin, I need you to call Matt, find out if Grace is okay,” he said in a hurried panic.

He was still bent over the laptop when he felt a hand clasp onto his shoulder. Steve looked up to see John staring down at him with worry. “Steve...”

“Dad, I need to stop a little girl from losing her father,” Steve said, his voice rough. He needed to prevent the Hesse brothers from taking Danny away from him. “I’ve got a lock on their location. I’ll mobilize a team and lead the charge. I’ll have Danny out within three hours.”

“They’re not stupid men, Steve,” Chin warned. “There’s going to be a high number of guards, possibly armed bombs.”

“So I’ll bring in a bomb squad, too,” Steve said with heavy determination. “There is no outcome to this scenario where I don’t come back with Danny Williams alive and well. I refuse to even entertain the possibility.”

The computer beeped, calling Steve’s attention down to it. John had yet to move his hand from Steve’s shoulder and it was a baseline to a kind of comfort. It was appreciated more than Steve really knew how to put into words.

“Coordinates,” Steve said, bending over to scribble them down on a piece of paper. “Call Matt,” he called again to Chin. “I’ll set up a secure line and call in a team. We’ll mobilize and attack at eighteen hundred hours and neither of you can be there. I’m sorry,” he said haltingly. “But from here on out, this is the Navy’s business.”

Danny was out there somewhere, and Steve was going to get him back alive. The Hesse brothers had no idea the kind of hell they’d unleashed upon themselves, and Steve was looking forward to personally bringing it to their doorstep. He didn’t move a single inch, though, until Chin made the call to the Williams residence.

“Matt, it’s Chin. Is everything okay over there? Is Grace okay?” Chin asked gravely.

Chin didn’t take his eyes off of Steve for a single second. Steve could hear Matt’s tinny voice in the background of the phone, sounding panicked and worried, but Steve thought (maybe, just maybe) that he heard him report that Grace was safe.

Chin covered the mouth of the phone. “She’s okay.”

“Bring her here. Have Matt come here, too,” Steve ordered, fingers flying to dial his superiors the very _instant_ that he knew Grace was safe. He was on the phone with a Captain within minutes, and he excused himself to the lanai to have the conversation in private. “I don’t think we need to have the money on hand for this, sir,” he said, his voice rigid and his posture matching, even if it couldn’t be seen over the phone. “I just need a team of your best. I’ll bring our citizen back to safety and to his family.”

“See that you do, Lieutenant McGarrett,” his Captain said as he signed off.

Now Steve had the honor of waiting several hours while teams were assembled and he figured out how to storm a vacated air hangar close to the airport without the Hesse brothers knowing that he was coming. He earned only one reprieve during the whole time, and that was when Matt arrived with Grace.

He stepped away from preparing his kit and stared her up and down, verifying that she was okay and neither Victor nor Anton Hesse had been anywhere near her.

“I recognize that look,” Matt said knowingly. “You can hold her.” Steve opened his mouth to protest, but it was too late. Matt had already placed her in his arms. “Danny gets that look sometimes, out of nowhere. It’s like he forgets that they’re not in a car or that there’s no bad guys lurking around the house. Sometimes, you just need to hold a baby.”

“Anyone ever told you that you have good advice?” Steve deadpanned, earning a smirk in return.

The expression was just similar enough to Danny’s that Steve took a kind of relief and determination from it, driving him more than ever to rescue Danny. For now, he had Grace in his arms to worry about, his fingers doing a quick skim-check of her little body for any kind of puncture marks or wounds.

“Hey little one,” Steve said, his tone heavy with panic even though he tried to lighten it for Grace’s sake. “You okay?”

“Fine!” Grace blabbered up at him with a big grin on her face. “Steve,” she added with heavy concentration.

Steve’s returning smile was fraught with worry. Normally, he would be giddy. It was the first time that she had managed to say his name in full, but his happiness was tempered with the worry of what would happen if he couldn’t get Danny back. Not only that, but how did you tell a girl of Grace’s age that her father was in danger?

Here she was in Steve’s arms, as happy as a baby got, not even aware of the situation at hand.

Steve pulled her in tighter against him, supporting her with his hands splayed wide as he paced around the room, mumbling ‘it’s okay’ to her as many times as he could, as if he could bolster his confidence with the repetition. Eventually, his mantra grew too fast and hurried and Matt stepped in again.

“Okay, man, you’re freaking me out, I have no idea what you’re doing to my niece,” Matt said apologetically, taking her back into his arms. Steve tried not to process the keen sense of loss that came with having to surrender Grace. “So,” Matt said, his voice that deceptive light tone that Danny had when he was dead-serious about something, but didn’t want to seem that way. “Are you going to get my brother back for me?”

“I’ll do everything that I can,” Steve swore, checking the time and knowing that he should get back to packing his things. “Matt, I promise. If I don’t come back with Danny alive, I...I don’t actually know what I would do.”

He saw his father’s look of sharp distress at those words, but Steve meant it through-and-through. What good was he if he couldn’t even bring back Danny from the brink?

Once he had on a tac-vest, a set of guns, ammunition, and grenades, he felt as though he was somewhat ready. He would have preferred to go in more armed, but it was edging closer to go-time and he couldn’t afford to wait. He gave his father, Chin, and Matt a warning look.

“None of you follow me,” he reiterated. “I need you safe. Dad,” Steve said, his brow furrowed. “If I don’t come back from this...”

“You will,” Matt was the one who interrupted, against all odds. “Do not talk about this like a suicide mission. You are getting my brother back,” he said, getting a little desperate. Sometimes, Steve forgot that Matt was young. Not as young as Mary, but he still wasn’t as old as he acted. “You’re getting Danny back and you’re gonna come back, too, because otherwise, do you know how much of Danny’s ranting I’ll be subjected to? You’ll come back.”

John managed a smile of his own. “I love you, son.”

“Me too, Dad,” he said, which was what he wanted to get out in the first place – just in case. He sealed the vest on, grabbed his kit, his cell phone, and headed for the door where the team was waiting. They had a chopper in the sky, but Steve wanted to be on the ground to diffuse the situation.

The ride to the site was one of the longest of his life. He sat in the back of the van with his gun fully loaded, his uniform weighing heavy on him, and his conscience heavier than that. Even though he refused to let any hint of a negative outcome enter his mind, the thoughts had a tendency to slip in anyway.

They were miles away from their destination and Steve had no idea what kind of assault to expect once they arrived. He spent the remainder of the drive in silence, going over multiple scenarios and plans in his mind.

When the building was in sight, Steve gave the order to keep the convoy a good distance from the doors in case the area in close proximity to the abandoned air hangar was rigged with explosives to ward off an attack like this one.

Steve checked his phone, setting it to silent as he gave the signal to the men in the convoy. He was the last one out, abandoning all the practical thoughts in his mind and letting instinct take over.

He paused only momentarily to catch his breath, and then he was moving.

If he stopped, he knew that he would face danger and possible death. Moving was the only option. He checked the phone one last time, but there was nothing from Victor or Anton Hesse. They had the cover of darkness, aerial support, and he had superiority in numbers with the bomb squad standing nearby.

Steve was ready.

His back pressed to the metal grating of the door, Steve made sure that everyone was in place before counting silently to three and giving the signal. The flash grenades went in first, and then Steve followed with a firm kick of the door. His steel-toed boots did their share of damage before he let fly several smoke grenades, sliding a mask onto his face and heat-seeking goggles on atop that so he could keep moving.

He picked up four heat traces and a fifth tied to a chair. Steve had to squint, but he could make out the vaguest image from under the chair, like water dripping. Unless the water was at the temperature of a human body, it had to be...

 _Blood_.

Steve sprinted to Danny’s side, skidding to his knees around the back. He didn’t bother untying the knots, digging out his butterfly knife from its ankle holster and flipping it out to cut the bonds loose.

“Danny. Danny, it’s Steve,” he said, ripping off the mask when the smoke cleared.

At the same time, he got out his SIG from its holster, keeping it trained on the figures moving through the receding smoke. His team was there, for the most part, but he could see Anton Hesse just barely through it all.

Steve didn’t hesitate. “Anton Hesse,” he shouted, loud as possible. “Put the weapon down or I will shoot.”

Victor was nowhere to be seen, which alarmed Steve, but not as much as the fact that Anton had a gun in his hands and he was turning it on Danny and Steve, his finger so close to pulling the trigger...

Steve’s instincts and years of training kicked in. It didn’t matter that he wanted (needed) to keep Anton alive. He pulled the trigger before Anton could; only remembering at the last minute to keep away from the fatal shot.

As it was, he still hit a place bound to do a great amount of damage.

Steve couldn’t help but feel slightly vindictive when he saw that his shot hit the femoral artery. Anton hit the floor hard, the gun clattering on the concrete as he grasped at the leg. The question of where Victor Hesse had gotten to was solved the moment that Anton’s blood began to spurt out on the floor. Instantly, Victor was at his brother’s side – armed and ready to shoot.

“Victor,” Steve warned, his gun still trained on them. His other hand was occupied seeking out a pulse on Danny’s body, but he was on one knee and unmoving. “Drop the gun, leave him. We’ll get him medical attention, but you’re both under arrest.” His team was occupied with the accomplices the Hesse brothers brought in with them, leaving Steve and Victor in a standoff.

“You’ll have to kill us both first,” Victor snarled, firing the gun randomly and rapidly, causing Steve to abandon all thoughts of firing back and dragging Danny to safety. He leaned down into his mic, trying to shout above the gunfire.

“Shots fired, Victor and Anton Hesse on the move, Anton Hesse has been hit, I repeat, Anton has been hit and will need to seek out medical attention. I have Danny Williams, I’m bringing him around back to safety!” Steve shouted, sure that only half of the words actually made it through.

Steve slid his gun back into the holster, using both hands to roam over Danny’s body. The slightly panicked tremors in his fingers were hard to hide and he was sure that Danny was bound to notice.

“Danny,” Steve said, above the echoing gunfire. “Danny, talk to me.”

There was blood coming from somewhere, he knew that much. Steve leaned down and ripped a strip of fabric from off his shirt, pushing up Danny’s button-down and finding a stab-wound in his side, rolling sticky and slow over his torso, down onto the ground.

“I need medical help, here!” Steve shouted at the top of his lungs, his worry only compounding. “Danny, please talk to me. Did they wire a bomb anywhere near you? Talk to me, say anything,” he begged.

“Grace.”

“Grace is okay, Grace is with Matt and Chin and my Dad, she’s protected,” Steve promised, sliding his open palm up Danny’s forearm, bicep, squeezing his shoulder and then repeating the process four times over while he temporarily buried his other hand in Danny’s mussed hair. “Danny, we’re going to get you to the hospital,” he promised, searching wildly through the hangar. “Status,” he demanded. “What’s the status on Victor and Anton, who has eyes on them?”

He received nothing but the crackle of incriminating silence.

“Damn it,” Steve snarled, throwing the radio across the room, sending it crashing into a set of crates.

He shifted in front of Danny, his weight absorbed by both of his knees as he slid both palms up to his face to cup his cheeks and hold onto him tightly. Danny finally seemed to get with the program, turning a drowsy and pained look on Steve. “Hey,” he drawled, voice raspy. “What, you miss me so much already you had to come find me?”

Steve sputtered out an anxious laugh as he leaned forward and rested his forehead against Danny’s knee. “Yeah, that’s right,” he agreed, making sure to flesh out his tone with just an edge of sarcasm. “I couldn’t stand being without you. You got me, Danny, you figured me out.”

“Wasn’t hard,” Danny replied, almost tenderly. It was serious enough that Steve lifted his head to give Danny a considerate look, finding nothing but sincerity on his face. It was enough that Steve wanted to pry further. “Get me outta here, I wanna see my baby girl,” Danny protested, shaking the remnants of the rope off.

“Whoa,” Steve said, on his feet in an instant when Danny started to sway. “First you get medical attention. You cannot see Grace before you’re fit. The last thing you need is to pass out because your wound is infected or there’s something else we missed. Okay?”

Danny stared stubbornly back at him.

“ _Okay_?” Steve asked again.

“You’re worse than my wife,” Danny muttered, but after he rolled his eyes, the nod of agreement came. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Steve breathed out in relief. He let the ambulance personnel take Danny away from him only when he got outside. He knew he had work to do. He knew he had to sweep the building for evidence and start following the Hesse brothers’ trail, but right now, he was overwhelmed with the knowledge that not only was Danny _safe_ , but that Grace didn’t lose her father today.

He could think about his intense reaction to the whole mess later. Steve was getting talented at subduing worrisome thoughts. This was just one more to add to the rest.

* * *

It had been a week since Steve watched Anton and Victor Hesse escape. His team had eyes on them until fifty yards out, but there had been a series of rigged explosions set to detonate after them. While the shrapnel was dying down, they had gotten away.

Steve had spent the majority of time at Danny’s hospital bedside with a deck of cards, containers of hospital pudding, and Grace in turns, trying to cheer him up until they released him. They’d brought Danny home three days back. Steve had still been hoping to catch information on the Hesse brothers, and spent every waking moment on the phone with any lead he could track down.

That had been his steady routine until a day ago.

That was when Steve received his orders. He was shipping out. First - to the Mediterranean, and from there, wherever he was needed. His things were packed and all that remained was saying goodbye to his father and debating whether he was even going to tell Danny.

He knew that he should. In the last five weeks, he and Danny had grown close. Steve hadn’t been in possession of many friends in the course of his life, let alone best ones, but Danny had neatly found himself a place in Steve’s life that made it feel as though he had always been there.

Steve was about to leave and he didn’t think he would _ever_ be back. It would have been difficult to face Danny and say those words, so Steve was avoiding the conversation altogether.

Steve had just finished with his duffel bag when he heard the knock at his bedroom door. He glanced over his shoulder to find his father standing there. “Hey,” Steve greeted, moving around the bed to root through the closet and see if he wanted to bring anything with him. “How’s the case going?”

“Our woman from the mainland is coming in this week. Danny’s still out on sick-leave, but Chin and I will pursue Sang Min and try to bring down this smuggling ring,” John said, his gaze turning to the bed in consideration. “When do you leave?”

“Thirty-six hours,” Steve replied mechanically.

John didn’t budge from the doorframe. “And you’re sure you don’t want a going-away party?”

“I just want to go,” Steve said, staring down at his bag and noticing the lack of personal effects as if for the first time. There were no pictures, there was nothing that said that he had anything to come back to. And why would he? For years and years, he had avoided home. He wasn’t like some of his brothers-in-arms. He served his country and it gave him a place to belong in turn. “I have to pick up the trail, but I think they’re going to replace me. I got my chance.”

“And what about your friends? Chin?” John brought up quietly.

“Chin knows. We had lunch yesterday.”

“And Danny?”

Steve hesitated, a pair of jeans in his hand before he stubbornly lowered his gaze and fixated on packing. “Danny doesn’t need to know.”

“I don’t know that Chin took that into account when he told Danny this afternoon that you’re leaving. Sorry, son. It’s been set in motion,” John said apologetically. Steve gripped his t-shirt tighter than before, and had the feeling that he wasn’t going to get away with not talking to Danny. “Chin thought that you two were close. Was he wrong?”

“No,” Steve sighed, shaking his head. “It’s just more complicated than that. I guess I’ll drop by and say goodbye.”

“At least say goodbye to Grace. I know she’s little, but you’ve become a constant in that little girl’s life,” John said, a grave look flickering over his face. “I know Danny would be upset if you left without a word, and I don’t need a sulking detective on my hands for the next two weeks.”

“You really think he’d be upset for two weeks over me?” Steve asked dubiously.

“I think it would be closer to two months, but I’m giving Williams a little benefit of the doubt, here.”

Steve pushed more of his clothes into the bag, sliding knives and automatic rifles away. He would see Danny when he was done packing. He’d pick up a bottle of wine, or maybe a six-pack of Longboards, and try to smooth over the fact that he’d intended to leave without even telling Danny that he was going.

It sounded easier in his head, Steve found, as he stood on the doorstep of the Williams house, staring up at the imposing door. He had a pack of beer in one hand and a small rattle in the other, with a pink bow wrapped on it – presents for both Danny and Grace, like he could bribe his way out of this one.

The Camaro wasn’t even in the driveway. There was a chance, possibly, that it wasn’t Matt who was out. Maybe he and Danny and Grace had gone out for family time and Steve could just blow this off, head back to the house, and start putting together the boxes of paperwork. Yeah, he would do that, he decided, turning away from the front porch.

He didn’t make it off the stoop in time, though. He heard the creaking of the heavy door opening behind him and turned to see Danny standing there with his hands in his pockets, giving Steve a dubious look.

“Of all the things I thought about you, of all the things I could have said about Steve McGarrett, I really didn’t think being a coward was on that list,” he said. “Get in here.”

Who was Steve to disagree?

He made his way inside, trying to figure out if Danny was pissed at him. He offered the beer out to Danny, followed by the rattle. “I brought this for Grace,” Steve said, staring at it and giving it a small practice shake. “Where is she?”

“It’s ten at night, Steve,” Danny reminded him with a bemused smile, pushing the beer into the fridge. “Where do you think she is? She’s sleeping. God bless my baby girl if she can make it through the night,” he added, closing the door with his hip and staring at Steve considerately. “Chin told me that you’re going back for your next assignment. Guess that was always coming, huh?”

“Yeah, this wasn’t permanent,” Steve agreed, taking a deep breath and trying to force it past the lump in his throat. He just had to keep reminding himself of things like that – he was always meant to leave, he was never supposed to meet someone like Danny Williams. And yet, here he was, ignoring everything that he’d been feeling because of the people he served and the ones he was returning to in less than thirty-six hours.

He had been fighting images of Danny splayed naked on a bed, pressed tight in his arms, laughing in the bright early morning sunlight and wearing yesterday’s clothes.

It was harder to fight those images when Steve had one night left on the island. Danny stood less than three feet away from him, and no one was there to convince him that he couldn’t (shouldn’t) do this.

Steve gripped his fist tighter, staring as Danny idly wandered the length of his kitchen, tidying as he went.

“So how come Chin Ho had to tell me?” Danny asked, avoiding looking at Steve as he folded dishtowels into neat and precise shapes. “Thought we were getting close, I _thought_ that, maybe, you and I were getting along really well. Was I wrong?”

Steve exhaled a long breath that he’d been holding in. “No, Danny. God, no, you’re not wrong.” He stepped closer, shortening the distance between them.

No one would know.

Matt was out, Chin wasn’t liable to stop by, and his father knew he was going out and having one last hurrah in Hawaii. Grace was asleep and no one would know if Steve indulged in what he’d wanted for so long.

One more step forward and Steve was within an arm’s reach of Danny. He took advantage of that fact by lifting his palm and brushing it against Danny’s neck, his thumb tracing the path of a muscle up to his jaw, licking his lips as he stared down the distance between them. “I’m only here for one night,” he warned. _Say no if you want to_ , was implied when Steve kept his fingers resting against Danny’s cheek.

Danny didn’t move.

He didn’t even speak.

“We’re not looking for something permanent,” Danny said, reaching his hand up to press atop Steve’s, clasping on firmly with a kind of desperation. “Unless you were willing to offer that. We like you, Steve.”

“You and Matt?”

“No,” he said. “Me and Gracie.”

That was all Steve needed to be convinced that this was a good idea. He closed his eyes and dove in, his fingers sliding into Danny’s gelled hair and grabbing on firmly, bringing him forward to be kissed harder than Steve had kissed anyone in years. Steve pulled away, breathing raggedly, pressing his forehead to Danny’s as he tried to catch his breath.

“Are you okay? You’re not hurting, you can breathe?”

“Steve,” Danny muttered, fisting his hands up in the fabric of Steve’s t-shirt and hauling him in closer. “Shut the hell up.” That was all the warning he got before he was drawn into another kiss and mechanics took over, things he hadn’t done in years since his last one-night stand with a man.

He shifted until his back was pressed up against the marble of the kitchen island, sliding both palms down the backs of Danny’s thighs until he could get a good grip and lift him up, spinning them until Danny was the one supported on the counter.

“Steve...” Danny begged. “I don’t exactly have protection, and Matt doesn’t leave it lying around.”

Steve leaned in to kiss Danny desperately, his brow furrowing. “I don’t have anything either,” he groaned, sucking Danny’s lower lip between his own and losing himself in the act of kissing Danny as deeply as he could, forgetting about the drawbacks of this impulsive act. “I could...” he offered, trailing off and gesturing to the side. “I mean, I could leave and get some.”

Danny’s hand gripped at Steve’s shirt, yanking him in tighter. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“Danny, I only have tonight.”

“We’ll make do,” Danny insisted.

If that was the case, then Steve had an idea of where to start. He pushed Danny’s knees apart, fingers swift in unbuttoning his jeans and sliding them down. He got one hand under Danny’s ass to leverage him up, yanking his jeans down lower. “When is Matt getting back?” Steve asked, pulling Danny’s t-shirt off and throwing it aside, leaving hot impressions of lingering kisses up Danny’s torso.

“He’s not,” Danny said, sounding giddy. “He met some girl, texted to say he was going back to her place. It’s you and me alone, so long as we don’t wake Gracie.”

That was all Steve needed to know. He shifted lower, one hand on each of Danny’s knees to get comfortable, making sure that he had enough room to lean over and take Danny’s dick into his mouth, shallow and attentive. Steve had never been able to deep-throat, but his skills with his tongue had always been enough to make up for it.

It definitely didn’t hurt his ego when Danny leaned back and gripped the kitchen sink tightly, head tipped back towards the ceiling. His mouth fell open and he let out practically silent cries; Steve didn’t know if that was just how he always was or whether he was being considerate of Grace.

He realized, his mouth on Danny’s dick, sucking and enjoying the rude slurping noises that came with it, that he really wanted to find out.

That was a definite mark against casual.

Steve put thought and planning and tomorrow out of mind, choosing instead to focus on the way Danny threaded his fingers through Steve’s hair and tugged tightly, like he was attempting to exert some control. He focused on the shape and feel of Danny’s dick in his mouth, on his balls, and the way Danny’s face looked as the pleasure of the moment started to overwhelm him.

Yeah, they needed lube and condoms, but this wasn’t half bad either. If Steve could have this and a promise of searing kisses like the ones before, he could definitely stretch those out through the time he had left.

Danny’s hand in his hair tightened and Steve peered up to check on their progress.

“Steve,” Danny managed, stuttering out the word quietly. “Steve, I’m gonna.”

“Yeah,” Steve replied, searching Danny’s body over with his eyes and taking him in – enjoying every inch of him that he had to offer. “ _Yeah_ ,” he reiterated, this time with much more meaning. He got his mouth right back on Danny’s dick and coaxed him along with a flattening of his tongue, curling it and gripping Danny’s thighs tightly.

It had been a while since he’d swallowed, but stupidly, he had the notion that he was going to impress Danny with this. He backed away on his heels, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand, and didn’t need much encouragement to lean right back into Danny’s grasp and indulge in another long kiss.

He only pulled away when he could feel the beginnings of a laugh at his lips. “What?” Steve whispered.

“Nothing, we just, we managed this without waking up Grace,” Danny whispered back, both hands tangled up in Steve’s hair. “I can’t believe you’re only doing this before you leave at an ungodly hour of the night tomorrow,” he sighed, shaking his head. “You have piss poor timing, McGarrett.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything at all. Chin forced my hand,” Steve protested stubbornly.

“Wonder why he did that?”

“Wait.” Steve furrowed his brow. “Did you guilt-trip me into coming here using my father?”

“How else was I going to see you before you left, huh?”

Steve pulled a face, tweaking Danny’s earlobe and fumbling with Danny’s pants to get them back on. “And was this what you had in mind, huh? You thought that I’d come over, say goodbye, and we’d round out the evening by me blowing you on the kitchen island?”

Danny ran a palm through his hair as he shrugged. “Admittedly, I sort of thought that we’d talk and I’d cop to my gigantic crush on your lovable ass. Then you’d make a lot of consternated and pained faces and I would see you off at the door. That or we’d get really drunk and pass out together. Seeing as none of the above happened, do you want to go upstairs to my bedroom so I can get you off?”

“You make it sound so romantic,” Steve deadpanned.

Danny made a considerate face, pretending to check his wrist for a watch that wasn’t there. “I don’t see you saying yes...”

Steve rolled his eyes and grabbed hold of Danny’s hand, pulling him off the kitchen island in a hurry. He didn’t even bother to pick up the strewn clothes around the room on their way up to the master bedroom, more occupied with stripping off his jeans and boxers and inching up the bed so that Danny could get his hands on him.

With the both of them horizontal and height disparities done away with, Steve indulged in as many fumbled gropes as he could. He began to lose his sense of time with an endless array of kisses, only breaking away to grab Danny’s wrist firmly enough to leave marks, guiding Danny’s hand into the exact position and speed that Steve liked to jerk himself off.

“Control freak,” Danny breathed out the words against Steve’s ear, pressing a long kiss to his neck and obeying Steve’s tacit commands. Danny’s hand was calloused, rough enough to evoke new reactions from Steve, but familiar in the speed that it seemed like they’d been doing this forever.

Steve closed his eyes, mouth parted slightly. Danny was shifting, still, pressing one knee in between Steve’s thighs and getting a good grip on his dick as he pumped it, fast and hard, ignoring the slow rhythm he had going before.

“Danny,” Steve babbled. “Danny. Danny, Danny,” he warned, his breath hitching. “Not much longer...”

Not much more before he was coming all over Danny’s stomach, earlier than he had anticipated. Steve’s brow grew pinched and he stared up at Danny apologetically. “What?” Danny asked, voice hushed.

“Usually,” Steve said, “I last longer.”

“Guess I’ll have to find that out,” Danny said, but then he seemed to realize what he had said aloud and a discontent expression flooded his face. “Or not. What with you leaving tomorrow and all. Nice timing, Steve. I feel like I need to mention that again.”

Steve didn’t bother responding with words, burying his face against Danny’s sweaty neck, wrapping both arms around his torso and holding on tightly. He had just hours left before he had to leave, and he had already made his mind up about what he would be doing during the majority of them.

“Have Matt take Grace to the zoo tomorrow morning,” Steve murmured against Danny’s chest, pressing kisses in between words. “We’ll go out and get supplies, and then you can find out.”

“I see the Navy took you for more than just your brawn and your looks,” Danny said with a hint of approval. “You’ve got a brain behind that pretty face.” He shifted, just enough to poke several fingers in against Steve’s side, making him recoil. “You gonna let me up?”

“Nope,” Steve said, eyes falling shut.

Exhaustion was coming on strong now that he had gotten what he wanted. Steve couldn’t imagine that he would have any trouble sleeping tonight. He shifted enough to settle at Danny’s side rather than beneath him, tugging the blankets up.

“You don’t mind if I spend the night?” Steve asked past a large yawn. He peeked one eye open long enough to see Danny fiddle with the volume controls of the baby monitor before getting out of bed to change his clothes, tossing the old ones in the hamper. He was back in bed before Steve could ask ‘how are you still wearing ties in this climate?’ and gave his answer in the form of pulling Steve closer to him.

“We’ve got big plans in the morning. You’re not going anywhere. Well,” Danny said, amending his words. “Not for the next twenty-four hours, at least.”

Steve set his mind to ignoring whatever was coming after those twenty-four hours.

He focused on the feel of Danny’s body under his while they slept, and waking up to him in the morning. Steve occupied his fingers with trailing over the fabric of Danny’s pyjamas, burying a grin into the pillow when Gracie’s soft cries changed their morning plans.

“Matt will be by soon,” Danny promised, on his feet instantly as he bowed to his paternal instincts and headed straight for Grace to take care of her.

Steve had made this bed and he intended to lie in it as long as he could. He spent blissful hours there with Danny and Grace, first thing in the morning. When Matt took her off of their hands, Steve showed Danny that not every time had to be as quick as the first time, and when they were exhausted beyond that, Steve did his best to trap Danny in bed using only the blunt force of a good embrace.

“Don’t you have to go, soon?” Danny mumbled tiredly, tracing patterns against Steve’s naked chest. “Thought they were picking you up at the airport in a couple of hours.”

“They are,” Steve said, staring at the ceiling and shifting into Danny’s touch. They had fooled around an hour back and the sheets still smelled of sweat and sex, but Steve had no intention of wasting time cleaning up.

His thoughts had turned back to his things and the lack of personal effects within. It was bugging him enough that he wanted to say something about it.

“Danny,” he said, his brow furrowed. “I have a favor to ask you. I’ll understand if you say no.”

Danny groaned and flopped over onto his back, pushing his hand through his hair. “Why do I have this bad feeling about what you’re going to say next? You’re going to ask for a lock of my hair, aren’t you?”

Steve paused, just long enough to pull a face of disgust. “Danny, I’m not a serial killer,” he said irritably. “No, I want. I want a picture of Grace.” He wanted a picture of Danny, too, but that was risky and complicated if anyone found it. He could have a picture of Grace and Danny could write something on the back and he would have a connection back to them.

Even if he still hadn’t decided what he was going to do, he would have a way to remember them.

Danny’s eyes softened, a smile lighting up his face and making him look barely older than twenty-one. “Yeah, I think we can manage that.”

Steve leaned in to steal a kiss because he couldn’t bear to go another second without doing it, the moment too perfect. “I hope that people have told you how gorgeous you are,” Steve said, incredibly seriously. “Because it’s true, Danny, it’s so true.”

“You’re gonna give a man a complex here, Steven,” Danny said, sitting up to root through his drawers. “Look, you’re leaving in a matter of minutes. Can we stop before things get too deep and you end up making me maudlin for the next few months?” He leaned over further, his shirt straining against his shoulders. “Aha! Here! Found it!” He sprawled back and presented Steve with a small four-by-six of Grace when she was just an infant. “This was from before her christening,” he said fondly, stroking the picture with her fingers.

“Write me something,” Steve said. “On the back, write something for me. I won’t look at it until I get to my next destination.”

Danny was giving him a look of disbelief, but Steve was determined.

He shifted his weight to grab a pen from the other nightstand, foisting it into Danny’s palm. “Danny, write. I’ll look at it and it’ll be something to remind me of you.”

“Steve, you keep saying this is only one night. I’m not an idiot,” Danny said, even though he had bent his head over the picture and was writing as loose locks of hair fell over his forehead. “I’m not reading into this. I know you’re not coming back.”

The weight of that truth sat heavily on Steve’s chest, but he didn’t say anything about it. Instead, he waited for Danny to finish, folding up the picture reverently and sliding it into his back pocket. “Thank you,” he said, checking the time and knowing that he couldn’t delay much longer.

The next few hours passed in a blur. He dressed and packed while Danny watched silently. He didn’t allow a single thought about the situation at hand and chose to think only about where he might be stationed next. He said his goodbyes to Matt and to Grace, and then he was in the front foyer with Danny and a taxi waiting outside to take him to the airport.

“So,” Danny said, pressing his lips together tightly. “Am I ever gonna see you again? Truthfully?”

“Truthfully? I don’t know,” Steve answered, mimicking Danny’s tone. “I wish I could say yes.”

“If wishes were horses...”

“Then you’d have that pony for when Gracie inevitably asks?” Steve teased. He rolled his shoulders back to try and disperse the tension, but it didn’t do much. “I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep.”

“So don’t,” Danny said, his tone deceptively light. “We’ll be here.”

“Remember, Danny,” Steve said, hefting his bag up in his hands and holding on tight. “You wait for someone great.”

“Yeah,” Danny said. “Or we wait for him to come back.”

It was a glancing blow and a parting shot all in one and Steve knew that it was designed to hurt. It did its job, but Steve took it in stride, waving as he made his way down the front walkway and into the taxicab.

He brushed his fingers over the picture in his pocket, but he didn’t pull it out to read what Danny had written. “Airport,” Steve said to the driver, calm and professional. He was sliding back to his old life, now, and he had no room for anything but the missions.

* * *

At first, it was easy.

His superiors hadn’t changed, and the atmosphere of the service washed over him and brought him right back to the life he was used to. It was like he’d never left at all and Hawaii became nothing more than a strange dream that he flashed back to once in a while, when the heat reminded him of Oahu, or he saw someone in a tie on the base.

He gave up all the information he had on the Hesse investigation and was relegated to research. Steve took it best as he could, choosing to look at it as an opportunity seeing as they were ready to give him other assignments that he never would have received if he was still bogged down with the Hesse case.

He excelled in his tasks and earned commendations in everything he did. He served his country and didn’t think about home until eighteen months had passed and he was brought in for his review.

“You’re doing absolutely fine, Lieutenant McGarrett,” said the Captain who had his record in his hands. “You haven’t taken any leave in a very long time, though, and your superiors believe that you’ve earned some time off. Take a few weeks. We’ve got something highly classified and perfect for you when you return and we want you in top-notch shape.”

“Yes, sir,” Steve said, saluting impeccably and waiting for the Captain to leave the tent before he even gave the suggestion any thought.

The picture in the front pocket of his uniform was starting to burn a hole through the fabric. In eighteen months, he still hadn’t looked at the back, but now that he had been told to take time off, his thoughts naturally gravitated to taking the time to travel, visiting some friends. He could probably catch Catherine in the Gulf and then make his way across the mainland, over the ocean, and land in Hawaii by the next evening.

He took out the picture and flipped it over, unfolding the light crease to look at Danny’s sloping handwriting.

When he saw what Danny had written, Steve didn’t hesitate. He booked a flight straight for Oahu, overlooking any layovers, pit stops, or other visits.

 _When you’re ready for it, come settle._

Two full days later, he was standing outside Honolulu Airport with only a duffel bag in his hands, staring out into the rainy upper atmosphere and wondering whether it had been a good idea to come back. His heart started to beat faster when the Camaro pulled around the corner and came to a stop outside the arrivals terminal of the airport.

“Well, hello, stranger from the foreign lands,” Matt greeted him with a grin.

Steve pushed his bag into the backseat and wasted no time getting in. He was tanner than the last time he’d been in Hawaii and his hair was shorn shorter from his last mission. He was ten pounds lighter, but he had an idiotic smile on his face for the first time in months at even the _idea_ that he would be seeing Grace and Danny soon enough.

“Well?”

“Well, what?” Steve asked, puzzled.

“Ask.”

“Okay, Matt, I seriously have no idea what we’re doing,” Steve said, pleading ignorance.

Matt gripped the wheel and shifted the car into drive. “Ask if Danny is seeing anyone.”

“Okay,” Steve agreed, rolling his eyes. “Is Danny seeing anyone?” Instantly, he regretted asking, because if the answer was ‘yes’, he knew that he wasn’t going to like it and he was about to spend two weeks of leave-time glowering at a new significant other. If the answer was ‘no’, then Steve was just going to be pissed with Matt.

“He was dating some guy for like, two weeks, but they’re over now,” Matt said brightly, taking the turns to get up to Kahala. “He’s been freaking out ever since you called, though. I swear that he hired some Disney fairies to clean the house, or mice, or whatever animal it is that does the trick. The floors are sparkling. It’s _unnatural_.”

Steve let himself feel that glimmer of excitement that he’d been ignoring for days. He was coming back, Danny was still single, and they had two weeks to do whatever they wanted.

“And Grace?” Steve asked, his eyes growing wider with anticipation. “How is she? She’s three years old and three months, now, right?” He’d missed _eighteen months_ of her life. It seemed almost impossible when he thought about that much time passing and how different a little person Grace was bound to be.

“Dude, why do you think I know so much about Disney cleaning agencies?” Matt said with a furrow in his brow. “Cinderella is her thing, lately. Danny dressed up like Prince Charming and twirled her around the other day while Kono videotaped it for Ma and Dad back home. You should have seen it.”

Steve forced a smile, trying to ignore the fact that he _had_ missed so much. Eighteen months. He was just lucky that Danny had said yes to him coming back, it didn’t necessarily mean that they were going to jump right back to where they were – though Steve hoped beyond anything that they would.

Steve was so engaged in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice that they’d arrived.

Steve’s heart raced as he stared up at the house, not knowing what to do in this situation. “Did he miss me?”

“Five weeks of pining,” Matt enunciated every one of those words. “Your Dad won the money on _that_ bet.” His amused grin seemed to fade away when Steve’s anxiety was so apparent that it could make Matt Williams sober into a serious mood. “He’s wanted to see you since you left. Now you guys have two weeks. Do you really want to spend it in the car?”

“Will Grace even remember me?”

“Maybe not,” Matt admitted truthfully. “But Danny’s been showing her pictures and telling her stories about you in preparation. My brother, the cop. Everything has a book and a list. I swear, he is _this close_ to writing protocol to follow in the house,” he said.

Steve leaned back to grab his bag from the backseat, holding it tightly in his lap.

He’d faced certain death more times than he could count on fingers and toes, but a house in Kahala was threatening to undo him. Steve really thought that he was made of stronger stuff than this. He glanced over his shoulder to Matt for one last moment of support, and when he got it, he eased his way up the front steps and knocked on the door.

“Steve,” Matt said dubiously, opening the unlocked door and giving it a light push. “Seriously?”

“Daddy! Danno! It’s him, it’s Steve!”

Before Steve could even register what was going on, he’d somehow managed to drop his bag and catch an armful of Grace. Steve’s trepidation practically melted away the moment he saw her. He fell back into familiar habits, supporting her weight and marvelling at how big she’d grown.

Her hair was longer now, uneven jagged edges to her ears and bangs covering her forehead. She was even wearing a brand new pink dress and a bow atop her head to match, which screamed of Danny’s interference.

“Look at you, you’re so big,” Steve said, coaxing her to wrap her legs around his side. “I know you probably don’t remember me, but when you were very little, I was one of your very best friends.”

“Danno told me,” Grace said with a shy smile.

Steve hitched her up a little higher, giving her a fond smile. “Who’s Danno?”

She pointed across the foyer to the living room and Steve followed the direction to see Danny standing there in a pair of navy blue trousers and suit jacket to match, with a light pink button-down shirt underneath that. He wasn’t wearing a tie, but he was still overly dressed. Some things hadn’t changed.

He looked every bit as good as Steve remembered him looking in the numerous (and sometimes so real that it ached to realize they weren’t) dreams that he had about the man. “That’s Danno,” she said, giggling like Steve was silly for not knowing.

“Danno?” Steve echoed, crossing the distance between them until he was practically in Danny’s personal bubble. He wanted to be even closer, but he didn’t think that would be a good way to reintroduce himself to Grace.

Danny shrugged sheepishly, his hands in his pockets. “She could always say ‘dada’, but the minute I tried to get her to switch to ‘daddy’, we encountered several problems of Houstonian level,” Danny said, leaning forward to tweak Grace’s nose. “She couldn’t say it. So, now she calls me Danno instead.”

“It’s cute,” Steve said with a fond smile.

“Yeah,” Danny agreed, his face lighting up with a big grin. “So are you.”

“Cute? I leave for eighteen months and I come back and suddenly I’m _cute_? See if I leave again.”

“We really wish you wouldn’t,” Danny said and though he was trying to make it sound like a joke, Steve could hear the serious edge behind it.

It would have been too easy to write their relationship off as casual – the kind of thing that you left as a one-night stand. Instead, it looked like Danny had grown attached to an _idea_ and Steve wished he could say he felt any differently. He had stared at the picture of Grace and thought about Danny far too often for it to be as casual as he’d intended it to be.

Things were still complicated, though. Steve still served an institution that would evict him from their ranks if ever they found out about him and Danny.

Besides, Steve still didn’t know if there _was_ a ‘him and Danny’ to speak of.

“You’re looking good,” Steve observed, reaching out to tweak the lapel of Danny’s suit jacket.

While he was doing that, Grace was getting comfortable in his arms. She rested her cheek against his shoulder and Steve had to fight back the overwhelming and nearly instant reaction he had to _protect_ her and never let her go. He only had two weeks and then he had to go back. He couldn’t start thinking of this as his life.

“I wanted to impress this guy,” Danny said quietly, staring at Steve. “So, this. You being here. Does that mean you’re ready?”

Steve stared down at Grace warily. “Grace, honey, cover your ears,” he instructed and waited for her to do just that (humming cheerfully) before Steve felt comfortable continuing. “No. Not fully,” Steve admitted, wanting to be honest. “I’m not ready to give up what I do, and you know I’d have to. I need more time to figure out if we’d actually work.”

“How long do we have?” Danny asked.

Steve was glad that he was seeing their time together as an opportunity. “Two weeks. We have two whole weeks and all I have to do is drop by and see my father once. You can listen again,” he said to Grace, gently prying her hands away from her ears and sharing a bright grin with her. “Other than that, we’ve got...” He paused for theatrical effect, giving Grace a considerate look. “Well, I think we’ve got the petroglyphs and the aquarium and the tall ships in the harbor.”

“The zoo?”

“And the zoo,” Steve agreed with a big grin. “Maybe even a football game? We can swim in the pool here and Danno can even show off those pretty legs of his in a bathing suit.”

“Did I say you could co-opt my daughter’s nickname for me, huh?” Danny protested, but it was mild, at best.

Steve wasn’t expecting what came next.

He was getting ready to retort back with a quip about how he thought it was a good nickname and one that ought to be used as much as possible, when Danny leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips.

Grace giggled, which at least made up for the fact that Steve had gone absolutely blank.

“Danno, you’re only supposed to kiss the princess.”

“And who says Steve isn’t my princess, huh, Monkey?”

Steve raised his free hand. “I’d like to protest my status as a princess,” he said, but he was still numb with pleasant shock.

Grace was still holding onto his upper arm with firm fingers and Danny was looking at him like they saw each other every day. Steve had stepped back into the shoes of a life he didn’t remember living, but he was being welcomed into it, nonetheless.

He shifted Grace up higher, trying to clear his mind of any doubts. Right now, he and Danny were working on something. Steve had two weeks to enjoy with the Williams family and when he left, it would be hard. He might have answers and he might be just as lost as ever.

He didn’t really see the point of wasting two weeks obsessing over any of this when there were much more interesting adventures to have.

“So,” Steve said cheerfully, his attention on Grace. “What do you want to do first?”

“Everything!”

“Everything, huh?” Steve echoed with a bright laugh. “Okay, well, I better get my everything shoes on.”


	3. I lost my head but found the one that I loved

Steve checked his watch as the chopper came in for its landing. In another hour, he would be landing in Waikiki. It was nearly four years exactly since he first came back on the trail of Victor and Anton Hesse. They were still at large _somewhere_ , but every lead the Navy picked up ran cold. Steve suspected that they had help in higher places -- people who were practiced in hiding a trail.

Steve had no proof of that. He could only follow the leads he had, right up until they turned cold.

“What’s the weather like?” Steve asked the pilot above the noise. Normally he’d bring himself in, but his Captain had sent him with an escort as a thank you for the completion of Steve’s last successful mission.

Four months ago, during his last visit, Danny had grilled him constantly on just what it was he did. He tried every torture technique in the Williams book – from cold feet on Steve’s skin to withholding coffee in the morning – but all Steve ever had to say was that it was classified.

“Sunny, sir,” the pilot replied. “Do you have plans?”

“I’m going home,” Steve said with a proud smile. He only had five days this time around, but five days was better than nothing at all. He was working on getting some time off for Grace’s birthday in a couple of months, but it wasn’t official. He was going to keep it under wraps until he had confirmation.

He was living a life that he loved, but it was just shy of being the life he _wanted_ to live given the small amount of time he spent with Danny and Grace. Once he returned to the Navy (as he always inevitably did), he couldn’t even talk about them because that would get him booted out instantly.

There were nights when Steve rolled over in an uncomfortable, cold cot, and thought that it would be worth the dishonourable discharge if it meant going back to a warm bed and someone who wanted him.

Steve’s only doubt remained the knowledge that if you added up the time that Danny and Steve had spent together, it came up just short of four months. Four months wasn’t a lot to build a relationship on.

Steve thanked the pilot profusely when they landed, grabbing his bag and ducking his head to avoid the blades. He could see his father waiting for him at the edge of the tarmac and Steve lifted a hand to acknowledge him, hurrying over as the chopper pulled away.

“Hey, Dad, thanks for picking me up. Matt was working and Danny’s busy with Grace,” Steve said, reaching out to shake his father’s hand the minute he got close enough.

John gave him a pinched look in reply, but didn’t say anything. Steve had _no_ idea what it was he’d done this time, but he was sure he’d find out. He waited for it, and then waited some more, and finally, he couldn’t take it. By then, they were already on their way to Danny’s place.

“Okay, fine, _what_?”

“I want you to listen to me as a voice of reason,” John began, “and not your father. This isn’t a measure of disapproval, and it’s not to say that I don’t like Danny.”

Steve could already tell that he wasn’t going to like where this was going.

“Dad...”

“And I want you to remember,” John cut him off before Steve could launch his argument, “that I see Danny Williams day in and day out, seven days a week. Keep that in mind for what I’m about to say, but I think it’s reached a point where if I don’t bring it up, I’m not doing my duty as a friend to him.”

“And what about your duty as a father to me?” Steve asked, brows furrowed together.

John shot Steve an impatient look. “We’re having this conversation as equals. Grace is getting older.”

“I know that, Dad, I try to come and see her as much as I can...”

“Steve, let me finish before you talk back,” John said sharply. “Grace is five years old now. She’s a bright young girl with a good heart and she has a devoted father. And then there’s you. You’ve been an unsteady fixture in that young girl’s life. You come and you go without any kind of consistency and you can never promise when you’ll be back. She’s reaching an age where it won’t be so easy to forget you when you’re gone, Steve. I want you to tell me that you’ve thought about the repercussions of your actions.”

Steve glanced over to the driver’s seat, pulling a face. “Oh, I’m sorry, can I talk now?”

“Don’t give me that, Steven.”

“Yes. Yes, I have thought about how my visits affect Grace,” Steve said, gesturing wildly out the window. “And I know that she’s older, but Danny and I are still anything but serious.”

“Steve, in the ten years that you were gone from the island, you never made a point of coming back. You could have,” John said. “But, you didn’t. Since you met Danny and Grace, you’ve been back more times than I ever would have expected. That’s not serious?”

“We haven’t exactly talked about it,” Steve admitted, shifting uncomfortably in his seat as they drove their way down back roads. Steve recognized it as a detour – a way to keep the conversation going without interruption. “But it’s not like Danny’s told me that he loves me and it’s not like we’ve talked about what we are. We’re just dating.”

“Steven,” John said quietly. “If you love that man half as much as I believe he loves you, then you need to make a decision about your future. I see Danny every day. He never lights up so much as he does when he sees Grace or when he hears that you’re coming back to town. On the other hand, I never see him as miserable as he is the day after you leave. Think about that. And then think about how Grace feels when you go. How did _you_ feel when I sent you away to protect you?”

“It’s different,” Steve said, his chest aching at the thought of making Grace feel even remotely close to the turmoil he’d endured at sixteen.

John pulled up to the Williams’ gate and waited patiently. “Is it?”

“Dad, I’m employed by the United States Navy,” Steve said, gritting his teeth as he tried to understand whether he was fighting his father because he disagreed or because he agreed and didn’t know what to do about it. “Being with Danny like that and working are mutually exclusive. It can’t happen.”

“Well, then, son. I guess it’s time to ask yourself what you really want,” John said, unlocking the doors and gesturing up to that big house that Steve saw half as much as he wished he could. “Do you want to keep working and be lonely, earning a little girl’s resentment and her father’s broken heart -- or do you want a family?”

“I can’t just choose Danny and Grace and _not work_ ,” Steve said.

“There are other options. If you choose family, then you come and talk to me, and I’ll see what I can do about getting you a local job in your neck of the woods,” John said. “I won’t say anything more, because this decision has to be about what you want, not an impulsive and reckless thing.”

Steve stared up at the looming house and then turned back to his father, who looked at him with sympathy etched on his expression.

“What would you do, in my position?” Steve finally asked, retrieving his bag and setting it on his lap.

John smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Every time, without fail, I choose family. I always have.”

“Even when you sent your kids away?”

“How could I lose you?” John asked. “How could I have consciously kept you here because I was selfish and run the risk of losing you? Steve, I believe that your mother’s death wasn’t a car accident. All these years, I’ve been trying to keep you from that, but if it helps you to understand, then I want you to know. She was murdered, Steve, by people who are still out there. I got too close to something and she died because she took my car that day. I’ve lived with that guilt since you were sixteen. I couldn’t take even the idea of something happening to you or to Mary,” John confessed.

The tension of the conversation and the admission was weighing heavily on Steve and even though he wasn’t sixteen anymore, he felt like a kid facing his father and realizing what was really going on behind the curtain.

“Dad, we could’ve...”

“You were sixteen and Mary was even younger,” John interrupted. “You deserved safety, not a spotlight in the investigation I was running. I chose you and Mary, Steve. I choose my family. I choose to keep you alive and healthy and maybe not at home, but relatively happy, given the circumstances.”

Steve fought the lump in his throat, refusing to give in to the emotion that threatened to overwhelm him. He clutched onto the door-handle tight as he could and thought about his mother and his father. He thought about how his father hadn’t seemed to care and tried to reconcile that man with the one sitting beside him.

“I can’t get her back,” John said, eyes red-rimmed. “How could I have risked losing my children?”

Steve reached over tentatively, searching for his father’s hand and twining their fingers together so he could give it a squeeze. It was half-desperate and tinged with a slight amount of awkwardness. He still didn’t know his father as much as he wanted to, but he was beginning to understand him better.

“If work is what drives you, then go back to the Navy and leave Danny to find someone else,” John advised. “If you want to take a chance, there are always other opportunities for work on the island.”

“Dad...”

“I love you, son,” John said. “I know I don’t say it enough, but I do.”

“I love you, too, Dad,” Steve said. “And I’ll...I’ll think about it. I’ll make a decision.” He relinquished his father’s hand, getting out of the car before the moment could draw out into something heavy and cumbersome. He stood in the driveway and watched John leave.

He let himself settle down before turning to slide his key into the front door. He had keys, now, for the house. He had more than one picture of Grace, he had the security combination to the gate and to the main console, and Danny was number one on his speed-dial. Steve could keep swearing up and down that things weren’t that serious, but he was only lying to himself.

“Danny?” Steve called out, his voice still rough despite his belief that he was okay. “Hey, I’m home.”

It gave him a strange thrill of pleasure to refer to the house as ‘home’, but as soon as Grace came sprinting down the stairs and Danny not far after, he knew he wasn’t wrong. Steve dropped his bag instantly and crouched down to open his arms to Grace. “Hey, come here, you,” he encouraged, only stumbling back slightly when Grace leapt into his arms.

The last time he’d been back was four months ago, and in that time Grace had grown two inches and her hair seemed to have grown four.

“We made you a cake,” Grace said excitedly. “I even put Danno’s favorite on top!”

“Blueberries, huh?” Steve said, peeking upwards at Danny and grinning. “What, no pineapple?”

“This is a pineapple-free house,” Danny said. “And we don’t allow coconuts here, either. Do you know how dangerous those things are? I just finished a case where the vic’s head got knocked in. Death by coconut. Did you know that? Did you know how dangerous those things are? Grace, you are hereby disallowed from going near coconut trees without a helmet, you got that?”

“That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?” Steve said, straightening out the hem of Grace’s skirt as he carried her into the kitchen to see this wonderful cake that had been made. He caught Danny’s eye above Grace’s head. “Do you think you could call Kono to watch her? I’d really like to take you out for a nice dinner.”

“Is there an occasion?”

Steve paused, able to see himself teetering on the edge of a new life, but he couldn’t commit to anything without talking it over with Danny. He wanted Danny’s advice and he needed his input, especially if this was bound to be their first big decision _together_. “I don’t know. Maybe. Not yet.”

Danny looked suspicious, but he consented with a slow nod, migrating over to the landline. “I’ll call,” he agreed. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere fancy. Somewhere that you have to put on a suit and tie for,” Steve said, turning to look at Grace adoringly, bowing his head in to press his forehead to hers. “And tomorrow night, we’ll go out for pizza. You, me, and Danno. How’s that sound?”

“Perfect!” Grace said with a small bounce in his arms.

While Danny made the calls to Kono and to make reservations for dinner, Steve brought Grace into the den where she showed him her latest drawings. For a five-year-old, she wasn’t an amazing artist, but nothing looked like the blobs that used to adorn her artwork. She rambled on as she colored and told him about Matt’s job, Danny, and then she started talking about her school.

Even though he had been there four months ago, Steve felt like he’d missed a lifetime.

“Hey,” Danny interrupted, leaning over Steve and pressing one hand on each of Steve’s shoulders, leaning down heavily, leaving a kiss to the top of his head. “Kono will be here in an hour if you want to change.”

“Wait!” Grace said desperately, pushing to her feet and presenting him with the drawing.

Steve took the construction paper and studied it with an appraising look. “That’s, what do you think, Danno...?”

“That’s beautiful.”

“It’s genius.”

“I think the Louvre will be calling any minute...”

“I think you’re right,” Steve agreed, beaming away. “Look at that. It’s you and Grace and I’m riding a tube?”

“It’s a shark,” Grace informed him proudly. “Because Danno told me you were a seal once.”

Steve opened his mouth to tell her that it didn’t exactly work that way, but he figured that she’d learn as she got older. He leaned in to press a slow kiss to her hair. “It’s perfect, Gracie, I love it.” He was definitely bringing it back with him -- _if_ he even went back.

He felt in flux, like there were two paths before him and he wasn’t wholly sure which to take.

Steve occupied himself with dressing for the evening, smoothing out his shirt and grabbing a sweater-vest to go atop it. It looked preppy. Steve hadn’t looked preppy in almost a decade, but it was a good change and maybe that was what he needed. He pressed a hand to his stomach to attempt to quell his nerves, staring into the mirror.

He was looking at his reflection when Danny came into the room, in the midst of unbuttoning his shirt. “Grace is busy with her new masterpiece,” Danny mumbled idly.

Steve turned to Danny, grabbing his suit jacket by the lapels before Danny could take it off. He took a moment to rub his thumbs up and down the fabric before starting to undress Danny for him. He took great care in pushing off the jacket, head tipped to the side as he freed Danny’s hands from the cuffs of the shirt. He bit down on his lip when he got in closer, smelling Danny’s cologne and a touch of mint from his toothpaste. Steve inched in closer, pressing his hand to the small of Danny’s back and tugging him closer for the kind of greeting kiss that he hadn’t been able to steal before.

“What’re you gonna wear?” Steve asked, lowering his voice to keep it private between them. “I mean, you’re always in a tie and suit, you’re gonna have to really impress me here.”

“I was thinking, I was thinking I’d ditch the suit jacket and go with a waistcoat,” Danny said with the hint of a giddy grin on his lips. “What do you think?”

Steve’s hands descended to Danny’s waist, tucked-in and narrow compared to his broad shoulders, and cinched there possessively. “I could approve of that,” he said with a thoughtful nod.

Danny reached up to fix the knot of Steve’s tie, pushing past him and stripping off his jeans to start getting dressed.

“Did Grace miss me? While I was gone?” Steve asked Danny while he was in the walk-in closet. He dreaded the answer. He knew it, but asked anyway because he needed to remind himself of the biggest reason why he would stay.

Danny poked his head out from the closet, a pair of pants in his hand. “Of course she missed you,” Danny said with a scoff. “She loves you, Steve. She’s always going to miss you. She wouldn’t stop crying into that damn stuffed dolphin you bought her. It took me, Matt, and three doses of Cinderella to get her to calm down. Does that sate your gigantic insecure ego?”

No. That only made it worse.

Steve didn’t take his eyes off Danny for a second, watching the way he carefully buttoned up the grey waistcoat and slid his belt into the loops of his pants. He watched the way Danny brushed his thumb up and down his socks when he put them on, and thought fondly of how that mimicked the way he touched Steve’s back when they woke up in the morning.

The doorbell distracted him before his thoughts could turn more lewd. He reached over to squeeze Danny’s forearm. “Hey, I’ll get it, you get ready,” he said, running a hand through Danny’s messy hair.

He bounded down the stairs, pulling open the front door. When he saw Kono on the front step, he couldn’t help the insanely proud grin that always seemed to come when he saw her. At twenty, she was settling into her age. She had several books tucked under her arm – police academy, Danny had mentioned during their monthly call, after she blew out her knee.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t call for Kono’s elegant older sister,” Steve joked, trying to hold the smile at bay, but it didn’t work for very long. He grinned and pulled her in for a tight hug. “Hey, Danny and I appreciate this, I know it’s last minute, but...”

Kono swatted at his arm. She was practically glowing and she shifted her books in order to bring him in closer, squeezing tight. Steve had never met anyone who hugged quite as freely or as passionately as the Kelly-Kalakauas and Kono was only proving that fact.

“Hey, it’s no big,” Kono assured him. “I’ve got studying to do anyway and Grace can help me. Policeman’s daughter is the best study-aid, am I right?”

“How are you liking it?”

“It’s not surfing,” Kono said, a smile of regret stuck on her lips. “I’d give anything to go back to before the injury, but it’s the family business. If I can’t be out on the waves, then I’m going to protect this island.”

“I swear, between my Dad, Chin Ho, you, and Danny? This island will be squeaky clean,” Steve said, releasing her from his embrace. “Come on in. Do you want something to eat? Drink? I can get you something before we head out, we still have thirty minutes before our reservations.”

“No, don’t worry about me,” Kono said. “I’m gonna settle in. You guys go ahead, enjoy your dinner.”

“Kono Kalakaua,” Danny said as he descended the stairs slowly. “I thought I smelled rookie in my house.”

“My rookie butt is gonna be saving yours soon enough,” she said with a proud smirk. “Did you hear about that new task force?”

“I did,” Danny agreed with a slow nod of his head. “I have been interviewed for it and told that I will be in consideration and will be telephoned with the verdict by next week. I have yet to decide whether it’s all an elaborate sham to see who’s looking to jump ship.”

Kono rolled her eyes. “If it’s genuine, I’m going for it as soon as I graduate. You think you could help me out? Be a reference?”

“If you keep offering me discounted babysitting services, I’ll go to the moon and back for you,” Danny said, leaning in to kiss Grace’s forehead – she was too involved with her newest sketch to pay much attention to what the adults were saying. “We’re just at the little Italian bistro. Steve, are we gonna be out late?”

“Back by midnight,” Steve said, swiping the car keys from Danny. “Gracie, be good for Miss Kono.”

“I will,” Grace said distractedly, waving her non-crayon-clutching hand. “Bye Danno, bye Dad.”

Steve’s whole world stopped on a dime.

It took Danny corralling him to get him out of the house and onto the front porch, where Steve took a few long, deep breaths, to try and find some kind of way to avoid the big red panic button that was practically flashing in his mind. Was it too soon? Did this prove his father’s point? What the hell kind of father left his kid and went around the world? Yeah, other guys did it, but they didn’t have to hide their relationship and it hadn’t snuck like this, knocking them into silent submission.

Had Steve really stumbled his way into this situation?

“Dad?” he echoed, giving Danny an incredulous look. “How long has this been going on?”

“I was going to warn you at dinner,” Danny said apologetically, rubbing his hand in slow circles against Steve’s back to try and calm the panic. “She started saying it after your last visit. The school did some unit on families and all the ways they can look and ever since then, you went from StepSteve to Dad. I can talk to her, _we_ can talk to her if it freaks you out.” Danny paused, taking the time to look Steve over. “ _Does_ it freak you out?”

“Yeah, a little,” Steve admitted, wanting to be honest. “About as much as I like it. I don’t know, I don’t really know if I want her to call me that when I haven’t earned it.”

“She loves you,” Danny said quietly.

“Does her father?” Steve asked, hating that he was being so blunt, but feeling that it was necessary in order to get all the information he needed before he made any decisions. He was waiting on Danny’s input, of course he was, but knowing whether Danny was all-in made a difference.

Danny’s hand stilled against Steve’s back. At the rate they were going, they wouldn’t even make it to the restaurant for their reservations. They lingered on the porch with serious topics floating between them and Steve didn’t have a clue about whether he even wanted to go until he got his answers.

“Steve, that’s a loaded question to be asking the minute you get back,” Danny said in a hush.

“It’s a pretty big one, yeah. But I don’t think it’s undeserved. I can name your favorite song, food, vacation spot. I can tell you how Grace likes to wear her hair. I know,” Steve said, wielding his words like they were weapons, “that the last few visits I had here have been some of the best times of my life, even when we’re just hanging out on your beach or going grocery shopping or doing these mundane and boredom-inducing little things, but I love them anyway. Because I love doing it with you and Grace. Because I love Grace and I love you.”

Steve hadn’t been sure of it when he’d landed, but with time to think about how he much he _did_ love the inanity and the humdrum tasks, he knew that it wasn’t masochism that made him want to keep coming back.

“We need to have a big talk with dinner,” Steve said in fair warning. “And knowing whether you love me matters.”

Danny furrowed his brow and moved his hand down from Steve’s back to clasp at his hand. “Come on, let’s at least have this talk over drinks.”

Nothing. Not even the indication of a possible response.

“Danny, I have no issue standing right here until you give me an answer. It’s a yes or a no question, it’s really not that difficult,” Steve said, his patience running low. Something he’d said didn’t go over well though, because a look of indignation passed over Danny’s face and Steve instantly knew that he was in trouble.

Steve braced himself for impact.

“What?”

“This is not a conversation we’re going to have on my front porch,” Danny said, gripping the house keys tighter and pulling Steve over to the car. “First of all, I thought we established that I fell head over heels for your ass long before you even thought of me as more than a good booty call...”

“Do people even say booty call anymore...?”

“And second, you just got home! You’re springing this on me and you’re gonna leave, what, in two days?”

Steve took a deep breath and got ready to face the music as he slid into the passenger seat of the car. “Actually, Danny, that’s why I wanted to talk. I want to make sure we’re on the same page, but if you love me and I decide that I’m ready to change the way my life looks, my departure date might be...well, permanently delayed.”

Danny stuck the keys in the ignition, but didn’t start the car. He just gaped at Steve. “Are you saying...?”

“I’ve started to consider, _very recently_ mind you, leaving the Navy,” Steve said aloud. He waited a moment, but no lightning struck him down, which was a step better than he’d expected. “Dad and I had a talk and he brought up you and Grace and our situation. He pointed out that maybe I haven’t exactly been fair.”

Danny was suspiciously silent. Which tended to mean that he agreed, but didn’t feel compelled to share that aloud.

“Look, I know that it hasn’t been ideal, but we knew going in that it was supposed to be a short-term thing,” Steve said, glad that Danny had finally started the car to get them to the restaurant. He could practically hear Danny’s indignation before a single word was spoken and so he tried to beat Danny to the punch. “Which, it isn’t. It didn’t turn out that way, I acknowledge that. Tonight, tonight is about you and me figuring out possibilities. My Dad said there’s a work opportunity if I stay, so I wouldn’t be leeching off of you and Matt.”

“You’re family, we wouldn’t mind,” Danny instantly replied. “And if you argue that for a single second, Steven, I will turn this car around and march you right into the house, make you face Grace, and remind you of how highly my daughter thinks of you. Look, Steve, is this what you actually want or is this guilt talking? That’s all I need to know.”

Steve frowned as they pulled up to the restaurant. “But, Danny. There are financials to talk about, not to mention telling Grace and, and, what about work?”

“Steve, that comes later,” Danny said, brushing his palm slowly up the length of his waistcoat, fidgeting and fixing the tie. “All that comes right now is you telling me whether you really do want to stay with us and see what it’s like to live with me every day, instead of just on leave, or whether you feel guilty and you think this is the fix.”

“What if I don’t know?”

“We could be brave idiots and try,” Danny admitted. “Or we could be smart jerks and never see each other again.”

The mere thought of not coming back to Oahu for his next leave (or the one after that) knocked Steve askew, as if he’d stumbled his way into a state of breathless shock. He’d spent years never going anywhere but where his job sent him, but now the thought of not having respite in the midst of that was almost crushing. Danny got out of the car and Steve desperately followed, unable to do anything but chase after Danny.

It took Steve a while to actually say what he was thinking, though.

For all that Steve could screw his courage together to the sticking point, there was a difference between risking his life when he had nothing to come back for, and putting everything on the line when there was so much ( _too much_ ) to lose.

The waiter had just walked away with the pitcher of water and a wine order to fulfill when Steve could finally say it aloud.

“She really thinks of me as a father,” Steve said, the shock giving way to abject pleasure. “My little Gracie?”

“Yeah, how about that?” Danny agreed, waving around a piece of bread like a kind of weapon. “Your little Gracie. So,” he continued. “You gonna leave her?”

“Your subtlety is astounding, Danno,” Steve said dryly. “Honestly, your reserved nature is by far the most lovable thing about you.”

Danny flashed him a smirk and seemed to be doing everything in his power to keep from giving Steve the finger. “You’re the idiot who fell in love with me,” Danny said idly, slathering butter onto the bun. “I’m still waiting. Yes or no. Am I gonna start setting places for four in the morning? Am I gonna get another vote on important household issues?” Danny made a face. “I swear to god, Matt should _not_ be siding with a _five year old_ , even mine.”

“You have to admit that you were being too strict on the Cookie Jar Annex of 2008,” Steve said with a bright grin. “I mean, two cookies only per day? Danny, what is this?”

“I got spooked by your Dad talking about McGarrett family history. Bad heart health runs in your genes, you know,” Danny said, reaching over with his fork to rap on Steve’s knuckles. “Don’t think I’m not taking that into account as you get older, if I’m still around.”

“You will be,” Steve said instantly, his sureness coming through in his tone.

“Yeah, yeah, you say that now...”

“No, Danny, you _will_ be,” Steve cut him off to say the words again, sterner than before. “Because I’m not going anywhere. I want to give this, us, a real shot. I’ll find work here. I’ll discharge myself from the Navy...”

Apparently Danny was still a brat inside, because he smirked at Steve’s words.

“...stop making that face,” Steve barely hesitated to reprimand him. “And, if you’ll let me, I’ll move the rest of my things in.”

“My closet is already half yours. I keep putting on the wrong shirts, they’re too tight and buttons are starting to pop loose.”

Steve’s eyes widened with jealous indignation and arousal, painting an intimate and thorough mental picture of Danny at work with his arms crossed and his shoulders practically bursting at the seams. “You’re letting other people stare at you?” Steve growled. “Like that? And my father hasn’t done anything about it?”

“I don’t even think he’s aware the kind of caveman you are,” Danny replied. “Jesus, if I weren’t so turned on, I’d be scared right now. Contrary to what you think, Steven, your father and I are not already acting like he’s my father-in-law and I’m his kid. We’re good coworkers, but he’s been pretty respectful in treating me like any other guy. I don’t think he’s aware of where you stand. To be fair, neither was I.”

“Literally, I stand right here,” Steve said, choosing to be pedantic. “Sitting. Here, at a restaurant with you, where we’re about to have expensive wine and a dinner that I don’t really want because I’d rather be moving my things in and telling Grace. God, Danny, I want to tell Grace, you have to let me tell her.”

Danny lifted his napkin to his lips and signalled a hand high in the air.

“Yeah, hey, waiter,” Danny said in that infectiously cheerful way that usually pissed off half the people Danny levelled it at. “We’re gonna take dinner to go and the faster you get it to us, the bigger your tip will be.”

Steve couldn’t stop smiling.

He wished that the giddy excitement had lasted the whole of the trip back to the house. When there was roughly a mile left to go, Steve’s eagerness to tell Grace about the new situation turned almost wholly to nerves. What if she didn’t want him around? What if she didn’t think he was good enough for Danny?

What if he was a terrible father?

That thought hit him hardest of all. Steve tried to push it aside, looking up in trepidation to see that they’d arrived. He took a deep breath and stared at the window to Grace’s bedroom where the dim reading light told him that she was still awake and he was definitely doing this tonight.

“Hey,” Danny murmured, reaching over to squeeze Steve’s thigh gently. “I can tell her, if you want.”

“I just want it to be _good_ news,” Steve said, his brow furrowed and his tone fraught with worry. “What if she doesn’t want me around? What if...”

“Steve, I know you,” Danny began mildly, “and so I know that you’re freaking yourself out with the what-ifs in your head right now. March upstairs, sit down, tell that little girl that you’re planning on sticking around and then come to me to fix your eardrums when she breaks them.”

“You think she’ll be happy?” Steve asked hopefully.

“You goofball,” Danny said fondly. “I think she’ll be ecstatic. _Go_ , I’ll park the car and talk to Matt about setting up some accounts and house rules.”

Steve chanced one last look at Danny before a nervous smile broke through on his face. The fear dissipated just enough that he was able to get out of the car and charge up the stairs in a hurry. He opened the door, bursting through, and barely paid Kono any attention. If he did, he might falter and fall back to the nerves.

“Kono, can I talk to Grace?”

“Sure,” Kono said, suspicious. “Is everything okay? Where’s Danny?”

“Danny’s downstairs, everything’s fine, I just need Grace-time,” Steve said, as close as he got to rambling. He found his way to the side of the bed, a hand possessively claiming the storybook and resting it in his lap.

Kono took another look at Steve, but she crept out of the room slowly. It left Grace and Steve alone with big news on the tip of his tongue.

“You look scared,” Grace said, clutching her blankets up to her shoulders. “And happy. I thought you had to be one or the other.”

“You can be both,” Steve said, his voice shaking slightly. “Definitely, you can be both.” He clutched the storybook just a bit tighter. “Gracie, sweetheart, you like it when I’m around, right?”

Grace nodded enthusiastically, her hair bouncing up and down. Steve reached out to smooth it back behind her ear idly. “I love it!” she said. “Danno gets real happy and you always teach me new stuff and...and I love you,” Grace said, being thoughtful with the words like she didn’t want to get them wrong.

“Grace, what would you think if I told you that I was going to be around a lot more?” Steve asked, knowing that the chances of her disapproving were slim, but still _possible_.

Steve didn’t have to wait long for her answer. Even though she’d been lying on her back with the blankets fully on her a second ago, she was suddenly on her feet, throwing her arms around his neck and squealing as loudly as Steve had ever heard before, pressing kisses up and down his cheeks.

“Really?” she asked, laughing so hard that she had to stop and cough. “Really, really? You’re really staying? You won’t leave again?”

“I’m gonna stay with you and Danno and look for a job here,” Steve agreed, sweeping her up into his arms and raining down kisses on her hair. Instantly, he knew that he had made the right call. “You think that sounds okay?”

“Yeah!” Grace eked out in a decibel that Steve was sure only dogs could hear clearly. “Yes, yes, _yes_ , stay with us, you have to stay, we miss you so much, I miss you so much, Daddy.”

Steve buried his face in her hair, trying to come to terms with the simple utterance of a name he hadn’t earned yet, but wanted so badly. “Grace, can you do me a big favor? A really, really big one,” he murmured, his words muffled by Grace’s hair.

“Okay,” she said breezily. “What is it?”

“Let me tell you a bedtime story?”

“Okay, but not the book,” Grace said, resettling under the covers. She curled up as comfortably as she could, reaching out to claim hold of one of Steve’s hands. “Kono just finished it and it’s my third time through.” A great yawn swallowed up her words, forcing Grace to repeat them. “Can you...can you make up a story?”

And so Steve began to tell the story of the ugly duckling princess, who was cursed to be both a duckling and ugly. He probably would have been better at this had he actually listened to the stories his mother read to Mary when she was a little girl.

As it was, he didn’t think he was doing such a bad job improvising. There were wild fencing fights, dastardly villains, and a handsome prince. He was just getting to the part of the story when the brave knight came along when he was distracted by her sleepy snuffling.

“Hey, I think she’s out,” Danny said, from the doorway.

Steve craned his neck around, raising a brow. “How long have you been standing there?” he whispered, gently extricating himself from Grace’s grip so he wouldn’t wake her. He tucked her in before creeping his way out of the room, gently shutting her bedroom door.

He followed Danny into the master bedroom, an idiotic grin on his lips that he couldn’t seem to shake.

“Long enough to hear that you have absolutely no idea how fairytales are actually supposed to work,” Danny replied with a bemused smirk. He reached down to grasp Steve’s hand, twining their fingers together, tugging him closer.

Steve noticed that there were several drawers pulled out and the closet was half-empty. Steve cast a curious look to Danny.

“While you were telling Grace bedtime stories, I was making some space so you could move in tomorrow first thing. No use delaying it, right?”

“Right,” Steve agreed, a blissful smile on his face. “I’ll phone my Dad first thing in the morning and find out what this job is that I can apply to.”

Danny had a curious look on his face. Steve had grown well-accustomed to Danny’s expressions and he felt as though he had a fairly good read on the endless array. Right now, this face said: ‘I’m having a thought’. Of course, it could also just be ‘I really wish I’d ordered pepperoni on the pizza’. Steve was still learning.

“What?” Steve asked suspiciously.

“What exactly did your Dad say when he pitched this job to you?”

“He just said it was in my neck of the woods,” Steve said, clueless. “Why?”

“Nothing, it’s just that he’s made a lot of comments about you coming home. He and the Governor, they’re like...” He crossed his fingers together, rubbing his middle finger up and down the index before releasing them. “So, the Governor, she comes to HPD and she asks John whether he wants to join her new task-force. John says no, he’s got enough to do at HPD. So then John recommends me and Chin. We have our interviews and the whole time, your father keeps talking about how you’d be perfect for this.”

“You think that’s it?” Steve asked, trying to picture himself on a local task force. “What exactly is the task force supposed to do?”

“Rid the island of scumbags, keep the peace, do dangerous missions. It’s a political thing so the Governor can help her election chances. I implied that they could use a detective like me amidst their ranks. You know, make sure everything is in order and someone knows how to read Miranda rights.”

Steve watched as Danny started to pull back the sheets. Danny was already in his pyjamas and Steve didn’t want to be far behind. He stripped off his shirt and pants, getting down to his boxers and thinking that was good enough, seeing as his bags were still down in the foyer.

“We could be working together,” Steve said, instantly liking the idea more. He checked the time, reaching a hand out. “Phone, Danny.”

“Jeez, how about a ‘please’ in there somewhere?” Danny mock-whined, but he was grinning. He stretched out over the bed to reach the landline, handing it out to Steve and kicking at the covers until he could loosen them. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m making a call.”

“Yeah, I can see that, Sherlock,” Danny said with a roll of his eyes. “ _Whom_ are you calling?”

The phone was already ringing and Steve held up one finger in the air as though it could effectively shush Danny (as if _anything_ could ever do that). Steve straightened his posture, old habits kicking in hard. “Hello?”

His father sounded tired. It wasn’t that late, but Steve worried that maybe he’d woken the man up. “Dad, it’s me. I...” He licked his lips, trying to chase away the dry sensation working its way down his throat. “I’m staying.”

John paused, which just about killed Steve as he waited for the reply. “Are you sure about this, Steve?”

“Yeah. Dad, _yeah_ , I’m sure,” he promised, eyes on Danny – who looked sated and blissful and _amazing_ , sprawled out like that. Steve realized, belatedly, that he’d forgotten to eat and he hoped that Danny had managed to grab something. “I’m gonna stay. I’ll grab my stuff in the morning and move in with Danno. Can you...will you, do you think you could make that phone call about the job?”

There was a long pause on the other end. Steve started to worry that he was never going to be able to please his father, like he could never do anything but disappoint him. Then he heard it, the soft sigh of relief, and Steve knew what decision John had been hoping to hear.

“The Governor’s going to be pleased to hear this,” John said proudly. “She’s been looking for someone to head up her task force. Danny’s just a bit too young and lacks the experience of heading up missions. Chin doesn’t want it.”

“Danny’s on the team?”

That got Danny’s attention. Instantly, he bolted up from the bed and hurried to Steve’s side, pressing in tightly against him and leaning his cheek up against Steve’s to eavesdrop.

“Danny, Chin, a young policeman named Meka, and the Governor has her eye on Kono Kalakaua when she graduates in a year and a half. She needs someone to lead it. I suggested you, she asked if I could guarantee your interest, and I told her I’d find out. Are you sure?” John asked, one last time.

“Yes,” Steve said. “Dad, I’m gonna call you back tomorrow before we drop by. We’ll bring Grace.”

“You’d better,” John said.

When Steve wasn’t around, John had spent his fair time with Grace, and while Grace was developing fatherly affections for Steve, he couldn’t help but wonder what role John had taken in the young girl’s life.

Steve hadn’t really expected to give his father any semblance of grandchildren for a long time. Nothing about the Williams family went predictably, though.

Danny hung up the phone for him, tossing it to the nearest chair. He grabbed hold of Steve by the hips, turning him until they were facing each other. The glee on Danny’s face was impossible to miss and Steve nearly commented on it, but Danny didn’t even give him the chance. He leaned in, pressing a slow and heated kiss to his lips.

It was perfect. It felt victorious. It was familiar, and best of all, it wasn’t just one in a short countdown of kisses before Steve had to leave again.

“I got the job,” Danny crowed eagerly. “Steven, I _got the job_.”

“Yeah, you and me both,” Steve agreed with a laugh of disbelief. He bent down, pressing his forehead to Danny’s and feeling, for the first time, an inexorable sense of relief flooding through him. “Danny, I’m here. I’m staying. I’m home,” he breathed out.

The anxiety fell away. The doubt passed.

He’d made his decision.


	4. in my weakness I grew strong

Ever since Steve made the choice to settle with Danny and Grace, he’d been all-but-inundated with new things to grow accustomed to. Some were easy to adapt to, but there were others that caught him fully off guard. The small things were easy to deal with – morning routines, arguments over dinner, and splitting financials – but then there were the oddities.

One of those oddities that Steve _definitely_ hadn’t expected was for Matt to be as annoyingly nosy as he was.

More regularly than Steve liked, he was woken up in the morning by the door creaking as it was pushed open. When it was Grace, he grinned, beckoning her to join them. When it was Matt, he groaned and curled up tighter against Danny’s back.

In the six months since Steve had moved back to Oahu, Matt had crept in on them at _least_ ten times. Steve hadn’t expected that. Maybe he should have reached back to his own childhood, just to remember what siblings could be like.

That morning, Matt made a cooing noise as he leaned against the doorframe. From the way Danny was shifting in Steve’s arms – which were draped possessively around his waist – he was awake, but ignoring his little brother. “Oh, Danny,” Matt mock-sighed. “You make such a good little wife,” he teased. “How’s the little spoon gig working for you?”

Steve admitted defeat. He knew that he wasn’t getting back to sleep anytime soon. Instead, he began his morning routine. He’d gone to sleep like always in only a pair of boxers, but if Matt was willing to poke his head in to bug Danny, he could deal with Steve’s state of undress.

Danny wasn’t as eager to get up.

Steve scratched his belly idly, giving Matt a patient smile. “Morning, Matthew.”

“Good morning, Steven. Was my brother satisfying last night?”

“Jesus God, I hate both of you,” Danny said sharply, grabbing hold of a pillow and jamming it over his head. Steve stared fondly at Danny and the way the pillow mussed up his hair. “Why didn’t I do the smart thing and move to Boston with Betsy?” he asked, words barely audible.

“Off the top of my head?” Matt responded instantly. “Boston doesn’t have half as much shirtless Steve as Hawaii does.”

Only moments after Matt had irritated him by interrupting his morning time with Danny, Steve was suddenly on his side all over again. “He has a point,” he agreed, stretching out his shoulders. “I’m gonna put on some coffee,” he said, putting on a pair of flannel pants and forgoing the shirt. “Danno, the usual?”

“Double it, I’m gonna need it for my last day in the office, especially with your Dad going crazy paranoid right in front of my eyes.” Danny sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Steve lingered just long enough for Danny to get up and rummage through the drawers, grabbing hold of a piece of clothing before following Steve downstairs.

It wasn’t until they got to the kitchen that Danny pressed the clothing against the small of Steve’s back. Steve didn’t bother to turn around until the coffee began to drip.

“What’s that?”

“T-shirt, put it on you sexy half-naked bastard,” Danny grumbled, leaning up to press a slow kiss to the space between Steve’s shoulders. “As much as I love watching you in all your naked glory, I’m not sure my brother or our kid appreciates it.”

“Our kid now, huh?”

“Well, you know, she’s not trying to jump off the roof or swim with the sharks, so maybe she’s not your kid today,” Danny said with a smirk, to which Steve offered an innocent smile in return as he poured a cup of black coffee into his favorite mug. “But it’s pretty early in the morning, and I’m sure she’s gonna do something and claim you taught her. Which, we _really_ need to have a serious discussion about your influences.”

Steve sipped at his coffee slowly (hoping to be infuriating) before he set it aside and tugged the t-shirt on. “You know,” Steve said, his voice bordering on smug, “starting tomorrow, I _am_ your boss...”

“Please, god, don’t remind me,” Danny begged.

“Which means you actually have to start listening to me and respecting me,” Steve finished.

Danny lifted both brows, pouring his coffee while he stared at Steve in shock. “Sorry, do you think this isn’t respect? The fact that I did not scream my head off when you took Grace tandem surfing and that tiger shark came up to you, that very fact? That, _that_ , Steve, is as much respect as you will get from me,” Danny said, shaking his head. “I picked a goddamn lunatic.”

“She was giddy,” Steve argued.

“Yes, and I was busy having a heart attack thinking I was gonna lose my kid and you in the same day,” Danny said. “And then I’d have to get comforted by someone at your wake. Who do you think is best for the job? Amy Hanamoa, or maybe Chin?”

The expected jealousy flared up.

Steve wasn’t an idiot. He knew well enough that Danny was doing this on purpose to incite a reaction. That didn’t mean the growl lodged in the base of his throat was any quieter. “Danny...” Steve warned.

“You’re cute when you’re being a caveman,” Danny appraised, popping some grapes loose from the stem and zipping them away for later in the day. “But I am late and I still have a job to do, so kiss Grace for me and don’t forget we have the task force coming over tonight so we can discuss logistics.” Danny was practically a whirlwind from that point, grabbing his suit jacket, his papers, and his car keys in what seemed like one fell swoop. “Chin’s bringing Malia, Meka’s bringing Amy and Billy, and your Dad said he’ll _try_ to stop by, key word is ‘try’.”

“What, I’m not invited?” Matt asked when he wandered into the kitchen to join them. “Oh hey, it’s Steve. Hi, Steve,” he said with mock-surprise. “I didn’t recognize you, what with you wearing clothes.” Steve rolled his eyes, stepping in front of the coffee maker to bar Matt from having any, just for that little remark.

“He has a point,” Danny said, mimicking Steve’s tone from earlier. “Steve, let my brother have coffee. Matt, don’t give Steve too much shit about the nudity. There’s an idiotic part of me that lives in my pants that actually likes it.”

“Hi! Still your brother,” Matt said cheerfully. “ _Thank you_ for scarring me all the way until my _afterlife_.”

“It’s my job,” Danny said with a dutiful salute. “And Matt, you bring me some extra ribs and steak from the store tonight and yeah, yeah, you can come. No date,” he warned.

“Everyone else gets to bring a date!”

“Everyone else is in a committed relationship and isn’t picking up some girl on their drive home,” Danny replied instantly. “No date, you bring ribs and steak, and you’re not allowed to coo at me and Steve.”

“I don’t coo,” Matt scoffed.

“You kind of do,” Steve said from behind his mug. “It’s pretty scary. You treat us like we’re baby rabbits.” Steve just hoped they weren’t the kind of rabbits that were inevitably sent to slaughter. “Danny, go,” he insisted. “I’ve got things under control. I’ll get Grace up and start doing food prep for tonight.”

Danny was staring at him like he wasn’t so sure. Steve rolled his eyes and pressed a hand to each of Danny’s shoulders to forcibly march him out of the house.

“Go,” he insisted.

When he returned to the kitchen, his coffee was no longer where he’d left it. Instead, Steve found it in Matt’s hands.

“Seriously?” Steve said, rolling his eyes.

“What? You’re practically married to my brother, which makes all his property yours and that means you’re fair game to be hassled by the siblings,” Matt said, clapping Steve on the back. “Enjoy your housewifing,” he called back as he took Steve’s coffee and made his way outside to the gazebo, cell phone in hand.

Steve’s irritation had faded by the time he poured his next cup of coffee, helped along by the fact that Grace was stumbling her way downstairs, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. “Morning,” she said, always as grumpy as her father was at this hour.

“You have exactly thirty minutes before school,” Steve said, checking his watch. “I’d get moving if you want a ride.”

That lit a fire under her. While she was hurrying to get ready, Steve made his to-do list for the day. Once he’d dropped off Grace, gone grocery shopping, and finished some light house cleaning, he was mostly through the list and it was almost day’s end. Grace was taking the bus home, Matt was out with a client, and Steve had that big house all to himself. He wondered, briefly, about things at HPD. He wondered how Danny, Chin, and Meka’s last days were going, but the lion’s share of his worrying was spent on his father.

John had grown more paranoid and more obsessed with his investigation. It was as if he feared that losing his allies within the HPD was going to harm him rather than help. With Danny and the others in a position of full immunity and means, they could look into the kinds of things that John suspected. It was good news, but try telling that to John McGarrett.

The afternoon passed quickly. Steve was in the middle of basting the ribs when the doorbell rang, catching him off guard. He checked his watch, called up to Grace to make sure she was still doing homework, and wondered what was keeping Danny so late at work.

It was Chin and Malia at the door. Steve was in the middle of greeting them when he glanced down to shake Chin’s hand and saw a bright new band on Malia’s ring finger.

“Chin,” Steve said with approval. “When did you do this?”

“He did it just the other night,” Malia said, hiding her face in embarrassment before she gave up on it as a lost cause and let her giddiness shine through. “He, Danny, and Meka all received a pay raise with this new job...”

“And I couldn’t think of anything better than to spend it on her,” Chin cut her off, leaning down to press a kiss to Malia’s palm while he led her inside. “Danny sent along a message. He’s finishing some paperwork that the Governor said _you_ were supposed to do, but mysteriously, Danny said he’d do it for you.”

Steve couldn’t even help his smug smile. “He lost a bet.”

Chin quirked a brow upwards, but made no comment. “Are we the first to get here?”

“Yeah, yeah, but come on in, I’m getting stuff ready for the grill.”

Malia took Chin’s coat and made her way inside, her attention on various parts of the house. Chin lingered in the foyer with Steve, giving him the look that Steve had long-ago learned meant Chin had something to say to him.

“Yes?” Steve asked, waiting for the shoe to drop.

“I want you and Danny to be groomsmen,” Chin said. “The wedding isn’t for several months yet, but I’m a big believer in plans. And, unfortunately for you, we plan on having suits with ties.”

Steve pulled a face. “Can’t you just give Danny two?”

“He’s already gleeful that you’ll be in neckwear. Would you really take that away from him?” Chin asked, just as the front door was unlocked from the outside. “Speak of the devil,” Chin added as Danny came through the front, weighed down by fabric bags.

Steve instantly stepped forward to help with most of them, even though they were fairly light and Danny didn’t really _need_ the help. He took the opportunity to lean in and brush a kiss to Danny’s lips, grinning fondly.

“Hey,” Danny said suspiciously. “What’s with the mood?”

“Chin’s getting married,” Steve said smugly.

“Yes, I know that, we had a discussion about neckwear,” Danny said, a suspicious look filtering over his face. “Why do you look so giddy about someone else’s marriage?”

“It’s good news, Danny, can’t I be happy about good news? It’s been six months with you and me, everything’s great, I love Grace, we both have good jobs with a pay raise for you, and one of our best friends is getting married,” Steve said, the exuberance in his voice matched by the grin on his lips. “Can’t you see that for its goodness?”

“You,” Danny said, poking a finger against Steve’s chest as he started to unpack the bags, digging out the beer, “are adorable. Which is not a word I use lightly on a rough, tough, Navy SEAL. Chin!” he summoned. “Put the game on, will you?”

“Do we have to?” Malia asked, popping in from the patio. “What happened to talking?”

“Have you ever tried holding down a conversation with Steve for more than twenty minutes? I hope you like hearing all about the elegance of the Mercury Marquis,” Danny warned. “Which, I don’t care what you or your Dad says. It’s a shitty car, Steven, and if you strand me on Diamond Head _one more time_ in the middle of the day, you’re gonna hear about it.”

“I don’t hear about it already?” Steve asked incredulously. “This isn’t hearing about it?”

Danny smirked at him and continued to unload the bags, which was as clear a sign as any for Steve to go do what he was supposed to in getting the grill going. Danny grabbed hold of the remote, turning on the Yankees game against any protests – though he did mute it when Steve shot him a disapproving look on his way outside.

“I’ll keep you company,” Chin promised, clapping Steve on the back as they collected up the uncooked meat and made their way outside to the smoking grill. “Things are good here? Six months and you haven’t tried to take off. I take it that means that things are working out with you and Danny.”

“I just wish his brother wasn’t so nosy,” Steve admitted, clapping the tongs together as he lifted the hood of the grill and put on steak, chicken, and an assortment of basted ribs. “Do you know how many mornings it’s _him_ and not Grace in our doorway? It’s like there’s two kids in the house, three when Danny’s in a mood.”

“It’s the Williams blood,” Danny said as he followed outside with Malia, both of them carrying two beers apiece. Malia’s extra went to Chin; when Steve expectantly held out his hand, Danny gave him a look. “What, you think this is for you?” He leaned closer, pressing the sweating bottle to Steve’s forehead. “Of course it’s for you. Amy just called. They’re on their way and are very hungry. That’s a direct quote, so grill like you mean it, Steve.”

“I’d like to know why we’re talking about me when we can talk about that rock,” Steve said, gesturing to Malia’s hand. “How’d he do it?”

“He took me to the beach,” Malia said with a fond smile on her lips. “There was a man playing a guitar just down from where we stopped, at sunset, and just when he started to play my favourite song, Chin tucked a flower in my hair and got down on one knee.”

“Chin, congratulations on hitting all the romantic clichés,” Danny said with a smirk.

“Oh, don’t be cruel, it worked like a charm,” Malia insisted, lightly smacking at Danny’s arm.

Steve snapped the tongs in Danny’s face as he idled by the grill. “Why, what’s your idea of a perfect proposal?” Steve asked, his brows narrowing in curiosity. While he didn’t have any plans on asking, it was the kind of information that was likely to come in handy one day. “A proposal as read to you by a governed officer of the law? Handcuffs that say ‘marry me’ while you cart off some perp to justice?”

Danny relaxed back against the wall, sipping at his beer and smiling enigmatically.

“Oh, come on, is it seriously a secret?” Steve asked with a scoff.

“What, you think I’m gonna make this easy for you? Steve, god help me, if one day you decide to propose to me, I’m not handing you the instruction sheet. Give me a little credit here.” Danny took a long sip of beer and held Steve’s gaze, as if daring him to do it – whether now or at some point in time, that was definitely a challenging look on Danny’s face.

Steve was saved by the literal bell.

“Oh thank god, remind me to buy Meka a drink for that kind of timing,” Steve murmured under his breath when Danny left to greet their guests.

Chin raised his brow and Malia pursed her lips, but neither of them actually said anything. Steve focused on the food, his tense mood lifting when the first ones out the sliding doors were Grace and Billy, locked in a spontaneous game of tag. They couldn’t have been there for more than two minutes and already the kids had found a game to play.

“Hey, careful,” Steve called after them. “Stay away from the pool and I don’t want to perform any kind of first aid today!”

“We’ll be careful, Dad!” Grace shrieked as she narrowly avoided Billy’s hand, making a desperate attempt to tag her, before she squirmed her way into some of the lush tree arrangements near the edges of the property.

Steve glanced to Chin and Malia, then back to the kids as he smiled in distracted amusement. “So, are you two going to...?”

“We’re thinking that we’ll focus on the getting married part first,” Chin said with a slightly anxious laugh. “Neither of our families will be very pleased if Malia ends up walking down the aisle with her own plus one.” They were standing comfortably close in that way that Steve suspected all newly-engaged couples did. It was almost as if they were frightened to stray too far lest something happen. Chin’s arm held tight to Malia’s shoulders and she rested her cheek on his shoulder.

It made Steve grateful to see that kind of happiness, and it made him doubly appreciative that he’d found his own.

Danny, Meka, and Amy followed what seemed like ages after the kids had burst outside. Everyone had drinks in hand and they were moving at a sedate pace. Steve stood back and let everyone else greet each other and make their pleasantries and small talk while he kept on grilling, sipping at his beer every now and then.

He felt strange – in that awkward position of being the boss and also of not knowing these people half as well as Danny did.

Amy and Malia were talking excitedly as Amy clasped hold of Malia’s hands while Chin and Meka stood in quiet conference nearby. Steve felt Danny at his side before he heard him and exhaled a breath of relief at being given a reprieve from his next move in social chess. Danny wound his arms around Steve’s waist casually, resting his chin on Steve’s shoulder. “Breathe,” Danny instructed quietly.

“You remember the part where I’m not as good as you at this,” Steve said, just wanting Danny to remember why he was so tense that he was practically vibrating. “Is this going to be a regular thing?”

Danny made a humming sound against Steve’s neck. The vibration against his skin gave Steve chills down his spine. He let out a frustrated groan, knowing that while dinner was close to being served, their guests would likely be around for a while, Grace had hours before bed, and John was supposed to show up. Steve wouldn’t be able to indulge in what his body so desperately wanted, and Danny was only making it harder – in a very frustrating, literal way, too.

“We’ll see,” Danny said, giving Steve’s ass a smack before he held out the serving plates to Steve in order to get the meal going. “Gracie! Billy! Come get some chicken while it’s hot!”

Both kids unearthed themselves from the shrubbery and Steve winced at the amount of dirt on their skin. He could see the dismay on Amy and Meka’s faces and he didn’t even have to look at Danny to feel his radiating disapproval.

“Grace, you’re not sitting in Grandpa John’s lap like that,” Danny warned. “Once you finish dinner, you and me are going upstairs for bath-time. Got it, Monkey?”

“Alright,” Grace grumbled, sulking as she wandered right up to Steve and held out her plate. “You’re not mad, are you?” she asked, staring straight up at Steve with puppy-dog eyes. Steve was a strong man who’d survived a lot of firefights. He wasn’t sure he could survive being looked at like that for too long, though. “Daddy?” she added, dousing the fire with extra fuel.

“Listen to Danno,” Steve said, unearthing strength from some depth of himself he hadn’t even known existed.

Danny clearly approved, so maybe it was worth Grace’s pout.

It was definitely worth enduring Grace’s mood when Danny corralled him by the cheek with a light press of his fingers, turning Steve’s chin forcibly to face him. “Good Dad behaviour and better boyfriend action,” Danny said before bestowing a kiss to Steve’s lips. He took the last plate of food from Steve, sneaking his fingers into the strings of Steve’s apron to covertly loosen the knot, prying it off.

“Danny!” Steve hissed, grabbing it back before he could get too far. The other couples (and the kids) had made their way inside, but there was no way Steve was following without a little cover-up.

Danny gave Steve a concerned look before his attention drifted lower and he saw the clear problem. “Steven. Seriously?”

“You’re the one groping me and smacking my ass,” Steve said as he cinched the apron tight around his waist and knotted it expertly in a bowline knot. Considering he could do that underwater, he finished with frightening speed.

Danny’s grin turned proud and almost self-congratulatory as he lingered, getting in Steve’s space. “When everyone’s gone and Grace is asleep, I’m gonna drag the hammock out of the shed and you and me are gonna have our own little date night out here.” Steve let out a guttural sound and glared at Danny. “What?” Danny asked, forcing a look of innocence.

“Danny, I swear to god...”

“Don’t do that, you might get in trouble with the big man,” Danny said, shifting the plate away in order to press a slow kiss to Steve’s lips, taking a long while to ease away. “C’mon, let’s get inside before our guests think we’re getting up to something.”

“We _are_ getting up to something.”

“Yeah, yeah, semantics,” Danny said, waving a hand as he led the way inside.

The set-up was casual. Steve had arranged placemats around the living room, the game still on the television. Danny’s attention instantly shifted from Steve to the game the moment they got inside. Steve felt practically bereft. “Baseball’s still your true love, huh?” Steve teased, setting the plates down at the table. “Guys, dig in, please,” he insisted, handing plates of chicken burgers with salad to both Grace and Billy. “Danny, I’m turning the television off,” he warned only moments before he pressed the button.

Danny’s protests were short-lived seeing as minutes after Steve took Danny away from baseball, the last of the party joined.

“Look what I found on the driveway,” Matt joked, gesturing to John. “Danny, Steve said he got the meat, so I come bearing red wine. Forgive me?”

“Eh, you can stay,” Danny said dismissively.

“Uncle Matt!” Grace squealed excitedly, running over to hug his leg – and his white suit pants – in all her soil-covered glory. That got a wide grin from Danny. “Oops,” Grace said with worry when some of the dirt rubbed off on the pristine fabric.

“That’s almost worth the pain of the bath,” Danny admitted, practically crowing with glee. “John, hey, come on in. Your boy just finished grilling up some masterpieces, come have a steak,” he said, making room on the sofa by crowding closer to Steve. Steve adjusted by slinging his arm around Danny’s waist to make the space.

In the six months since he’d been back, he and John had been trying to make headway into their relationship. They tried to find common ground, but it was difficult. It seemed that, lately, John wasn’t around and all his attention was spent on his investigation. Danny had confessed that John seemed more paranoid than ever, and it didn’t take long before Steve was fully on board with that assessment.

It worried him. He just didn’t know how he was supposed to bring it up without alienating his father and pushing him away. That was the last thing he needed.

“Dad,” Steve greeted him, his smile tense.

John was leaning forward, loading up his plate with food and popping a stray baby carrot into his mouth. “Steve,” John replied cheerfully, like there wasn’t a growing distance between them and John didn’t spend every waking moment looking into a conspiracy that Steve wasn’t sure existed. “Good work on dinner. I’m glad to know you picked it up somewhere out there.”

There was a chance that the mood could grow chilly, but that was expertly deflected when Danny popped up from his seat and made sure everyone’s drink was freshened up, everyone had enough food, and the kids were enjoying themselves. He busied himself at the television as talk turned to work.

“So what’s the plan, Boss?” Chin asked.

“First, never calling me Boss,” Steve said. “The only reason I got the head position is because the Governor wanted someone used to missions. We’ll still be doing a fair amount of policework, but there’s an element of task force to it all.” He kept his eyes on Danny, who was fiddling with the VCR. “Danny, what are you...”

“I’m putting some of your old games on,” Danny said over his shoulder. “Your Dad wants to show me something that you apparently did before some big NFL-er did.”

“So, you’re not the Bossman, we’re still cops, and...?” Meka piped up, bringing the conversation back around to its point.

“Well, the big news is that we’ve got full immunity and means,” Steve said. “Which means that we have a lot of leeway.”

“Leeway that I don’t wanna see abused, okay?” Danny interrupted. In the time since they’d found out about this job, the one big argument that Steve and Danny ever had (that didn’t revolve around Grace’s upbringing) had to do with how far Steve wanted to push their immunity and how Danny saw it as a reason to exercise restraint.

Steve sent Danny a look that said he _still_ didn’t agree, but it was one of those arguments he didn’t see himself winning anytime soon.

“And what about the name?” Chin asked, but that was the last clear point anyone heard before the room devolved into chaos. Grace and Billy started to chime in with names they thought appropriate (Steve wasn’t sure why, but ‘Super-Cool-T-Rex-Awesome’ didn’t sound as bad as it should have, though he was definitely ruling out ‘Princess Gracie’s Super-Fighters’, because daughter or not, he had his limits). Chin was trying to talk to John, on opposite sides of the room, and Amy, Malia, and Meka were all involved in a conversation regarding benefits and pay.

Danny rearranged himself, sitting on the arm of the sofa, and nudged his bare feet under Steve’s thighs. He raised both brows and while he hadn’t said a word, Steve laughed like he’d just told a joke.

Steve shifted his hand to cup Danny’s ankle, sliding it up and down the calf before leaning in to press a slow kiss to the outside of Danny’s knee. His laugh was breathless and almost one of sheer disbelief. If you told him a year ago that he’d be entertaining guests in the comfort of a home while debating the finer points of a new task force, he’d have called it crazy.

It turned out it was the kind of crazy that Steve could get used to.

“Hey, hey, everyone shut up!” Danny shouted, finally, when people had to raise their voices and the room was in a din. “Hold up, this is the play,” he said excitedly, winding an arm around Steve’s shoulders and gripping on tight as he watched the screen.

“Fifty?” Meka asked warily. “But you’re the quarterback. Shouldn’t you be number one?”

“Oh, god, please don’t encourage the ego,” Danny groaned.

“It’s not fifty,” Steve and John said, at the same time.

“Good, and now the McGarrett echo is back,” Danny said, pressing his lips together in a fond smirk. The others looked confused, save for Chin and Danny, who had heard this story enough times to know where it was going. “Put them out of their misery, tell them.”

“It’s five-0. When Mary and Steve were kids, it’s what I called the family. Five-0, because while this is our home, there are always going to be people calling us _haoles_ because we’re not native Hawaiian,” he explained, casting Danny a sympathetic smile. “I thought, maybe, it would be a way to make Mary and Steve feel like they belonged.”

“It did the trick for me,” Steve said with an appreciative smile.

“Five-0,” Danny said slowly, drawing it out, “isn’t the worst name in the world, you know. If you want to talk about taking people out of their element, making them feel like they belong...” He nudged at Steve’s shoulder, leaning in heavily against his side. “What do you think, boss?”

For all that he proclaimed to dislike being called that by the others, it gave him a definite thrill of pleasure coming from Danny, which was something Steve was going to examine later (much later). Danny gave Steve one last squeeze on the shoulder before extricating himself, picking Grace up at the waist and lifting her up in the air. “Where’re you going?” Steve asked, putting the question aside.

“Bath time for the little miss. I’m serious, Steve, what do you think? You wanna be Five-0?”

“I already have been for most of my life,” Steve said, seriously. “It’s not up to me.”

“Well, then, Chin, Meka, have it out with Steven while I get the grime off this little one,” he said, tapping Grace on the nose and earning a pleased giggle. Steve watched him go up the stairs, turning his attention back to the awaiting group – well, all save for Matt, who was intent on watching Steve’s old football game like it was the NFL.

When Steve stopped watching Danny (his gaze had slipped from staring at his back to watching Danny’s ass), he turned to find the room was quiet and all eyes were on him.

“Well? Because I think it’s that or Billy’s suggestion for Team T-Rex,” Steve offered. “Or Honolulu Task Force,” he admitted to the saner option on the table.

“I like Five-0,” Chin said with a proud smile, bringing Malia in close and brushing a kiss to her temple. “I want to feel like I belong to something. John gave you a name to do that, and since everyone turned down my earlier suggestion...”

“Honey, it was long,” Malia interrupted with a laugh of protest. “And Danny was hopeless trying to pronounce it.”

“In that case, Five-0 it is,” Chin finished with a smile. He lifted his bottle of beer, clearing his throat as he did. “I’d like to propose a toast to tomorrow and whatever the rest of our days bring. To Five-0, to Steve McGarrett, and to the Williams’ brothers for extending their home to us.”

“Hey, seriously, anytime, provided I’m not the one doing the work,” Matt replied.

The chaos of noise descended again once the toast was over and Steve dove right into it this time. The conversation ranged from Chin and Malia’s wedding to the new offices they were moving into. It was only when Meka, Amy, and Billy left that the conversation turned more sedate.

“So, now that Chin’s engaged, I wanna know if you intend to ask my brother,” Matt said once he’d done a thorough check to make sure Danny was still busy upstairs (very busy, if the sounds of the ducky-bath-time-song were any indication).

Steve shook his head, trying not to look his father’s way in case there was disapproval to be found. “It’s not legal here, and we’re already living together. Until the laws change, we’re happy with this as it is. Besides, I’m pretty sure Danny’s still expecting me to pick up and leave.”

“And do you?” John asked. “Do you want to go back to the Navy?”

Steve was grateful that he could smile blissfully, shake his head, say, “No,” and honestly mean it. “I’m eager to start work for the Governor,” he said dutifully. “I think it’ll be everything that I was doing, but more rewarding because I’m protecting my home, just like my grandfather,” he said, locking eyes with his father momentarily. “And things here are good,” he insisted. “So, no, Matt, you’re not getting the chance to hit on my Navy friends at a wedding.”

“God, you suck. Never show me pictures again,” he insisted. “You’re seriously just a big tease.”

“Hey, watch the mouth,” Danny warned, holding Grace’s hand as they came back down from upstairs. Grace’s hair had been combed and she was wearing her pink duckie pyjamas. She wiggled her way out of Danny’s hold and sprinted down the stairs to jump into Steve’s lap.

He gave a mock sound of protest as he pretended to be bowled back, wrapping his arms tightly around her. “All clean?” he surveyed, lifting strands of her hair to check behind her ears.

Grace giggled and tried to edge away. “I’m all clean!” she insisted, crawling out of Steve’s lap and into John’s. “Grandpa John, Danno said you would tell me a bedtime story if I asked really nice. Will you? Please?” she begged, widening her eyes until they were at critical mass level and no one in the room was safe.

Steve pushed himself off the couch to see Chin and Malia to the door when they began to make quiet noises about leaving. He held the front door open, grinning like an idiot as Chin helped Malia into her coat. “It’s all working out, isn’t it?” he asked, partially because he wanted the verbal confirmation.

“Looks like it,” Chin agreed. “I’m glad you stayed, Steve. I couldn’t think of a better task force than the one we’re starting tomorrow.”

Steve had already been brimming with pride, but now he felt like he might explode with it. He clapped Chin on the back and hugged Malia tightly before seeing them off. When he closed the front door, he was ready to start his nightly routine, but Danny was standing in the foyer. He looked ready to throw a wrench in Steve’s plans.

Then, it was _Danny_. He wouldn’t be Danny if he didn’t cause some kind of havoc.

“Hey,” Danny said fondly.

“Hey. I was just about to start cleaning...”

Danny cut him off with a kiss, wrapping his arms around Steve’s neck and sliding to his toes in order to press their bodies together. “Matt’s got it. Your Dad’s gonna put Grace to bed. How about you and I go outside and find that hammock?”

“My Dad is here,” Steve said, his face pinched.

“... _Steven_ ,” Danny said with dismay and mild amusement. “We’ll find the hammock to stargaze. You have a ridiculously filthy mind.”

Steve snuck his fingers down Danny’s jeans, brushing against the edge of his boxers as he leaned in and scraped his teeth over the skin of Danny’s neck before sucking a light pink mark into his skin. “And when Dad’s gone...?”

“Yeah,” Danny breathed out, his grip on Steve’s hips getting tighter. “Then, yeah, maybe.”

Tomorrow was going to start a whole new chapter in their lives. Tonight, all Steve wanted to do was keep spending time with the people he loved best in the world.

* * *

Since Five-0 began two years ago, they had never exactly been _calm_ , but the task force wasn’t usually filled with the insanity that Steve was dealing with today. It wasn’t all work, even, but between correspondences from HPD, new tasks, finishing missions, and his father saying he had _something_ to show him, work was definitely in the mix. It just didn’t help that suddenly his personal life was flooded with activity, either.

“Steve!” Danny sharply said, prying him from his thoughts. “Are you going to Grace’s interview or am I?”

“Why would the teacher want to see me?” Steve asked as he pulled a face.

“Gee, I don’t know, you’ve been a pretty important fixture in her life for the last eight years of it,” Danny said sarcastically. “Why _would_ Grace’s third grade teacher want to see you?”

“It’s about English, Danny. You help her with her English homework,” Steve protested.

“Do you just not want to go?” Danny asked. He was perched on the edge of Steve’s desk and was opening the daily mail for Five-0. “I’ll go if you’re suddenly having performance anxiety issues.”

Steve made another face, much different than the one before, but no less displeased. Danny always said that his face was made of putty when he wanted it to be. “I am not having...” He swatted at Danny’s ass. “Go make sure Meka and Chin have that paperwork finished on that drug-bust.”

“Yessir,” Danny said, saluting Steve and heading off.

Beyond the normal work, the Governor was on Steve’s case to get Kono Kalakaua sworn in as soon as he could. She had just graduated from the Academy and was waiting in the lobby for her interview. Steve waved her in as he put aside some reports of gun-running and slid the newspaper under a pile of papers so he wouldn’t have to stare at the seemingly-accusatory main page’s news.

Today’s news was eager to report that civil unions were now legal in Hawaii. That was on the heels of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell being repealed and suddenly, Steve’s head was spinning with all the possibilities that had opened up before him.

He put those thoughts aside, too, the moment Kono opened the door that separated his office from the calamity outside (where Danny and Meka were getting into an argument about something about the paperwork, as usual). “Lieutenant, thank you for meeting with me,” Kono said with a bright grin.

“Since when am I Lieutenant to you?” Steve asked dubiously, pushing away from the desk so he could wrap her up in a tight hug. “It’s Steve. It’s always been Steve. Come on in and have a seat. This is really only a formality, since it’s been decided you’re on the team, but for HR reasons, we need to have this interview.”

If Steve was glowing at the goodness of his life of late, then Kono was practically a supernova.

“Interview away, boss,” Kono said.

Steve wished that Danny hadn’t managed to establish that nickname so firmly, but in the two and a half years since Five-0 had been created, several things were entrenched in their culture: Steve often did things in ways that were less than strictly sane, Danny was Head of Paperwork, and Steve McGarrett was to be called ‘boss’. There were other things in there, like how Steve always got to drive Danny’s car, but for some reason, Danny didn’t like sharing that around.

They wound up chatting casually for about an hour. Steve asked some of the questions on the interview guide, but it was more friends talking than anything else and, by the end, they’d wound their way to personal matters.

“So,” Kono said with a gleeful expression on her face that Steve found extremely dangerous. Rightly so, because when she continued, the first words out of her mouth were, “I saw today’s paper.”

“Why do they print that stuff?” Steve mumbled his complaint.

“So? Are you going to ask?”

“Am I going to ask what?” Steve responded, choosing to be deliberately obnoxious.

“Come on, you and Danny have been together for _years_. You started dating before I even graduated high school. You proposing is just a formality, but I won’t lie,” Kono said, holding up her hand in the air like he was about to swear her in. “I’d love to have a reason to buy a sexy new dress and put my dancing shoes on.”

“How about we get you set up on payroll and you can grill Danny about this?” Steve suggested.

“He’s gonna ask?”

“No, no one is asking, Kono,” Steve said with a suppressed sigh. “Look, just drop it. We’re really busy right now and we could use all hands on deck. Chin’s working on a case that I’d like to place you on. It’ll be a good way to introduce you to the kind of work we do here while getting fresh eyes on the case. We just wrapped up a drug bust and now there’s an old player rearing his head again. His name’s Doran and he’s got some pretty serious attachments to some very nasty guys. I want you on that.”

With Kono, Chin, and Meka working on the Doran investigation and Danny making sure everything was in order with the papers (and staying busy by acting as Steve’s partner in more than just their personal lives), Steve had time to go out and grab lunch at the shrimp truck with his father.

“Danny,” Steve said, popping into his office in order to bend down and press a lingering kiss to his lips, really taking his time. “Hey, we’ll both go to the conference,” he murmured, not bothering to go very far, seeing as one kiss from Danny never really did the trick. He leaned in to claim another, then one more, and he intended to go for a third if not for Danny stopping him with an effusive laugh. “What?” Steve asked defensively.

“You really think I wanna hear your Dad complaining when you’re late to lunch because you couldn’t keep your hands off me? Think again, Superman. Go have lunch with your Dad and find out what the hell has been keeping him at the office for the kinds of hours he’s putting in,” Danny said. An order was an order, and Steve was good at following them, especially when they came from Danny.

He performed a perfect salute on his way out, calling out his destination to the team and his estimated time of return (mostly so he could listen to how Danny groaned when Steve used that kind of technical language).

John was already waiting when Steve arrived to the Ohana shrimp truck, but there wasn’t any food in front of him. Instead, John was sitting at a picnic table holding several photographs in his hand tightly and possessively, like he was ready to fight just to hold onto them.

“Okay, I’m here,” Steve said, straddling the picnic bench. “I’ve got an hour before I need to be at Grace’s school. What’s going on?”

“I’m ready to show you something, Steve.” John looked at the photographs in his hand and his face was momentarily overcome by a wary expression. It seemed like, just then, he was having second thoughts about telling Steve anything at all. “This is what I’ve spent so long working on.”

Steve could feel the familiar pit in his stomach make a return. No matter how good things went in his life, all you had to do in order to make Steve feel young and helpless was bring back the subject of his mother’s murder and his father’s descent into his paranoid (or maybe it was deserved) investigation.

“Dad, what are these?” Steve asked warily when he was handed the photographs.

At first glance, none of it made any sense. There were photos of keys, postcards, and an array of seemingly frivolous pieces of memorabilia. It looked like someone opened up a photo box and dumped out the contents.

It looked _unimportant._

Steve had been expecting so much more than this, especially if this was the result of years of his father’s indifference towards him and Mary in the name of justice. He felt like he was being screwed around. He felt like if this was what Steve’s life had been upended for, then he was owed so much more than just apology.

“Dad,” Steve said, practically growling out the warning.

“This is my investigation. It goes deep, Steve. I think it goes all the way to the top of the Yakuza, but I can’t be sure. I do know that I connected the Hesse brothers to a man named Wo Fat, but I don’t know who Wo Fat is or what he’s done. It’s as though he’s a ghost,” John said. “I’m stuck, Steve. I need help.”

“It’s been eighteen years,” Steve said, forcing himself to use a polite tone rather than the strained and incredulous one he wanted to haul out. “Dad, _eighteen years_. This all started when I was sixteen and I have a daughter half that age now,” he said. “You want my help _now_?”

“Steven,” John pleaded.

“I’m not saying I won’t help you,” Steve said, feeling his jaw tense up so badly that he could hear it start to click. “But I _really_ wish that you’d asked me this years ago. Do you have any idea what it’s been like to watch from the outside while you pursue this? Dad, Danny thinks you’re a paranoid nut. The most important person in my life thinks his almost-father-in-law is crazy. Do you know how much that bugs me?”

John remained silent, as if he knew he had no recourse.

Steve sighed and spread the pictures out over the picnic table, trying to look for clues that his father might have missed. Chin Ho wasn’t wrong in saying that the McGarrett family trait was laser focus and he thought that whatever he might find, his father would have already seen. “You need fresh eyes,” he said, when he couldn’t seem to find any connection. “You need my team.”

“Steve, I barely wanted to bring you into this,” John warned.

“What am I going to find that you didn’t, Dad?” Steve asked, getting slightly desperate in his frustration. “At least let me bring it to my team. They’re _good_ , Dad, they can help.”

John paused, and for an endless moment, Steve felt like he’d lost this argument. He sometimes felt like he shouldn’t even bother because he lost _every_ argument he ever had with his father. Then, like a miracle, John nodded. It was just one movement, one small movement, but it was acceptance.

“Yes?” Steve asked warily.

“Brief Danny, at least, let’s see what he has to say about involving the team in this,” John finally assented.

Steve exhaled slowly, closing his eyes as the tension seemed to bleed away from his shoulders. The only problem was that the day was out to get Steve, so of course the moment that his relief washed over him, the tension was secretly on the next wave, ready for attack.

“I saw today’s news,” John said, raising a brow slowly. “I was expecting a phone call, but I’ve yet to hear anything from Danny or you. Does this mean that you haven’t asked?”

“ _Dad_!” Steve protested, his brow knit in frustration. “Maybe neither of us wants that!”

“Steven, I know for a fact Danny wants stability and a civil union would only protect your rights when it comes to Grace,” John said. “Try again.”

“Well, maybe I want people to stop bugging me about it. It just got reported _today_. Even if I have been planning this for a while, it’s not like I’m going to go down on one knee instantly. For one thing, it’s not evening yet, and the reservations I made aren’t until six.”

“So you have a reservation?” John clarified, a proud smile sneaking its way onto his face.

Steve gave a sheepish shrug, casting a glance down at his hands in his lap. He felt strange – a chill sneaking down his spine – and almost like he was being watched. He supposed intense scrutiny would do that to you. Still, he cast a look over his shoulder before turning his attention back to John. “I have reservations for the place we went to when I decided to stay. And I got him a ring with an engraving, but if he wants to change it, I won’t really mind.”

“What does it say?”

Steve shifted so he could dig out the small velvet pouch from his front pocket. Since he bought the rings six months ago, he didn’t go anywhere without them and always kept them on his person. Both Danny and Grace were too nosy to keep them around the house and Steve didn’t even want to think about the endless taunting he’d get if Matt was the one to find them.

He’d had three words engraved on the inside of the ring intended for Danny, the sunlight glinting off the smooth edges.

“ _‘I know you’_ ,” John read aloud. He nodded and Steve felt good to at least have that kind of approval. “Simple. Nice. Good choice, Steve.”

“I can’t believe how anxious I am. I mean, we live together, we have for ages. He has no reason to say no, but that’s the possibility my mind focuses on. All I can think about when I think of proposing is that he’ll watch me get down on one knee and then reject me.” Steve pocketed the rings again, swallowing past the seemingly enormous lump in his throat. “It’s _Danny_. I’ve known him for eight years, I know what his answer will be and even the crazy gestures he’ll make when he replies. Except all that is small inside my head and the fear is so big. Did you feel like that when you asked Mom?”

“Your mother was so far out of my league, Steve, I still don’t know why she said yes,” John said with a fond smile. “I guess because, in the end, she loved me.”

“And you were nervous?”

“I dropped the ring,” John admitted. “My palms were sweating so badly that I dropped the ring in the sand. It took us ten minutes to locate it and she was finding granules for an hour after I slid it onto her finger. The important thing was that she said yes. We were happy, Steve, all of us were. Once upon a time...” He seemed to be drifting, but caught himself before he got too far. “I’m glad you’re getting to experience that feeling with Danny, even if I didn’t really _expect_ this to be more than a high school phase...”

“Well, it has been eight years,” Steve said, amused. “If it is a phase, it’s a pretty long one.” He was checking his watch compulsively, looking at the photographs and trying to figure out what his first move was. “I’ll show these to Danny,” he promised. “But I have to get moving, we have a parent-teacher interview at two.”

“Is everything okay?” John asked and Steve had to pause to admire the strangeness of the situation. Years ago, Steve had been bowled over to realize he’d practically inherited a daughter. He couldn’t begin to imagine what John felt like, having Grace in his life and fulfilling the role of granddaughter so unexpectedly.

Steve forced a hopeful smile. “I think so. Danny says it’s just routine parent-teacher conference stuff, and that if I’d ever attended one before this, I’d know. He’s touchy,” Steve said.

“I’d never know,” John deadpanned. “So this is your first conference.”

“I think if I don’t go to this one, Danny might kick me out of the house for a while,” Steve admitted, collecting his things and making sure the photographs were tucked safely away in the document-folder he was carrying around. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow about this stuff, okay? I just want to get through tonight focused on one thing and one thing alone.”

“Steve, you’ll be fine,” John promised, clasping his shoulder and squeezing it firmly.

Steve let out an anxious laugh as he shook his head. “You say that and I know it, but getting the irrational part of me to believe it is the tricky part.” He stood swiftly, papers under his arm, and an anxious look on his face. “Wish me luck.”

“Call me when he says yes,” John said, clearly unwilling to play into any of the theatrics that Steve’s nerves were perpetrating.

Though they’d made great progress in advancing their relationship beyond the awkward space it had once existed in, he’d yet to achieve the kind of relationship with his father where he hugged him to say goodbye or said things like, ‘I love you’. Instead, he nodded and headed off.

Steve’s thoughts were stuck on the photographs the whole of the drive to Grace’s school, but the minute he parked the truck and joined Danny in the foyer, everything else melted away as he gave Grace his full attention.

Most of it, anyway.

“I already checked your schedule, but just in case, clear tonight,” Steve advised as he stood at attention in the third grade classroom. You could try to convince him that he didn’t need to present himself in that manner, but he’d never heard a complaint about going overboard. “I made reservations for six.”

“Is this a good-news dinner or a bad-news dinner?” Danny asked warily. “What did you do with our suspects, Steve?”

“Nothing!”

It was possible that Steve had used nice dinners before as a sort of ‘forgive me?’ tactic with Danny, when he’d committed some of his more offensively-aggressive crimes against their suspects. Still, he didn’t think he’d done it enough to warrant a reputation.

“I just want to have dinner,” Steve said with a scowl, his posture straightening even more. “Is that a crime?”

“No,” Danny said, but he still sounded suspicious. “What should I wear?”

“Honestly, Danno, whatever you want. I mean, I’d prefer you go naked all the time...”

Steve received a sharp elbow in his stomach for the remark.

“Ow,” Steve said, tensing his jaw.

“We are surrounded by children, their parents, and Grace’s teacher,” Danny hissed, sliding his arm into the space between Steve’s arm and chest, holding on idly. “Save that filthy mind of yours for private.” Steve wanted to comment on Danny’s sudden bout of touching, but he was probably doing it to be competitive with the other parents in the classroom – sharing their distracted kisses and small touches.

Danny Williams never did play well with being outdone.

“Mr. McGarrett? Mr. Williams?” Ms. Iona summoned.

“That’s us,” Steve said with an eager lift of his brow.

Danny pulled him over to the tiny children’s desk, kneeling down to squeeze himself into the little chairs. Steve wasn’t going to have near that kind of luck, and didn’t even bother to try. For all of Steve’s fears that something would be wrong (or that maybe Grace’s teacher would have multiple comments to make regarding her home situation), there was nothing but praise. Grace was an advanced reader, eager to share and make contributions, and had volunteered immediately to be the first-aid marshal of the class.

“Usually, it’s a teacher,” Ms. Iona explained with a soft laugh. “But she was so insistent because her Danno was a cop and her Dad was a Navy-man. She felt it was her duty.”

Steve beamed with absolute pride and a glance at Danny showed his expression wasn’t much different. The interview went easily after that. They discussed areas of opportunity as well as the possibility of putting Grace into some advanced classes to challenge her. Danny seemed to take it all in stride (this wasn’t his first rodeo), but this was new territory for Steve, and he loved every minute of it.

By the time they left, Steve was practically radiating with giddy glee.

“Did you hear that? Advanced classes!” he said, trying to hush his words, as though worried that another set of parents would overhear and grow jealous.

Danny wrapped an arm around Steve’s waist and patted him twice on the hip. “I heard, babe, I heard,” he teased gently. “I’ve been hearing that since she got into elementary school. It’s usually math and English that she gets advanced in. Which, hey, is great news. At this rate, you can be bugging her about her AP classes by the time she’s sixteen.”

That implication carried so many things in it that Steve liked. The best, being, of course, that he would be around for those AP classes. The velvet pouch pressed against his hip, reminding Steve that he still had several hours before he could make that hope a _certainty_.

“Not you, huh?”

“Well,” Danny drawled out the word. “What can I say? I prefer to be the one of us who makes sure boys run scared of Grace’s two Dads.”

“You?” Steve asked, stopping on the top of the school steps. “You want to be the scary Dad? Danno, I have guns...”

“Yes...?”

“And I was in the Navy _and_ I was a SEAL. I’ve been on enough covert missions that my classification level is higher than anyone else on this island, outside of staff on the naval base. And did I mention I have the guns? And the knives!”

“Okay, okay, Steven, calm yourself,” Danny instructed, winding their fingers together and pulling him down the stairs. “You can scare away all the big scary teenagers that’ll pant after Grace.”

Steve beamed with victory at the solidification of his role in their lives. He just wished he could make it even more solid by having Danny and Grace take his name (or he’d take theirs, he wasn’t picky), but he had to move one step at a time. He dug out the keys to the truck and clasped them tightly in hand. “Six o’clock, Danny. Meet me at our restaurant.”

“Our romantic restaurant or your apology restaurant?” Danny asked warily.

“The rom...of _course_ the romantic one,” Steve sputtered, levelling Danny with a dubious look. “ _Danny_ ,” he accused. “You’re making this very difficult.”

“Who the hell do you think you’re involved with?” Danny asked, leaning in to press a chaste kiss to Steve’s lips before he headed off in the opposite direction to the Camaro.

Steve checked his watch. He had three hours to prepare himself for the biggest question of his life, not to mention finding a suitable piece of attire so that Danny would approve (he had the feeling khakis weren’t going to cut it) and he had arrangements to make in the hopeful event that Danny said yes. Danny had never been a flowers-and-chocolate kind of guy, but Steve doubted he’d say no to some champagne and maybe a new silk tie.

He set his mind to preparations, keeping an eye on the time. By five, he had things set up in the closet for celebration, and by five-thirty, he was dressed in a black suit and crisp white shirt that was open at the neck.

He was also jittery.

Grace, who had been playing outside, was now standing outside the bedroom door. “Dad,” she said warily, “how come you’re talking to yourself?”

“I’m trying to psych myself up,” he said, staring at his reflection in the mirror. “So I won’t be nervous.”

“It’s just dinner with Danno,” Grace said with a roll of her eyes. “Daddy, you’re _silly_ sometimes.”

“Yeah, I’m something, all right,” Steve exhaled when Grace wandered off to turn her attention to something more important (Hannah Montana or some other trend that Steve could barely keep track of before it was over). He took one last look in the mirror as he grabbed hold of his wallet and gave himself a last check. “You know him,” he told his reflection. “You _know_ Danny. It’s going to be fine. Loud, probably, but fine.”

That was the mantra he kept repeating all the way to the restaurant, grateful that he’d asked Danny to meet him there. Steve had the feeling that if they’d met up at the house, Steve’s resolve would have crumbled and he’d ask Danny the big question while they were half-naked in the bedroom.

It wouldn’t have been the worst proposal the world had ever seen, but it was far from the way Steve wanted to ask.

As it was, he doubted he’d make it very far into dinner before the question made it past his lips thanks to severe impatience. He occupied himself with the repetition of ‘you know him’ quietly on his lips all the way up until he sat down at the little table overlooking the water.

Steve had made sure to arrange for a small private room, glass walls built from floor to ceiling to preserve the ocean views. The table sat just outside of view from the public seating area of the restaurant. Neither Danny nor Steve were fond of public displays of affection, and Steve didn’t enjoy the idea of a whole restaurant staring at them while he did this.

It was a good thing that they were off in private, because when Danny arrived, Steve needed a moment to try and calm his body’s reaction. Danny was wearing a three-piece grey suit and a sleek red tie under the vest. He’d let his hair remain somewhat unstyled, not fully slicked back, but left somewhat looser. It made him look _young_ and more attractive than ever.

Steve was on his feet instantly to pull out Danny’s chair for him, pressing a hand to his back out of a simple need to touch him. He swallowed back a lump in his throat, body practically jittering with anticipation. He’d ordered a good red wine, bread had been delivered to the table, and Steve just wanted to _do_ it.

Danny looked so damn good that if he didn’t get the words out soon, Steve’s body might take over and convince Steve that it was better to have sex in the bathroom before asking Danny to spend their lives together officially - which wasn’t very romantic as far as proposals went.

“What?” Danny joked with a smirk as he folded the napkin over his lap. “Am I on the menu or something? You keep staring.”

“You keep looking good,” Steve said, giving Danny a lingering look, a pleased sound caught low in his throat, superseded by a growl. “God, Danny, you look...”

“Goes both ways.” Danny slid his fingers up the stem of the wine glass, looking over Steve with a slow and obvious onceover. “Seriously, you look... amazing, Steven. I appreciate all the time you put in at the gym and getting those tattoos if this is the result.”

Steve lit up with a grin, bracing his hands on the table in order to lean up and over, darting in to steal a kiss from Danny.

“Danny, listen, there’s something that I wanted to talk about,” Steve said, not quite sitting back down again. Their orders weren’t even in, but they had wine, the sun was going down in the sky, and the mood felt _right_. They were already solid and Steve didn’t see why he had to wait any longer.

Danny arched his brow. “Yeah?”

“First, and foremost, I want to thank you for taking me in when I wanted to give this a try. You didn’t have to do that. You could have just kicked me to the curb,” Steve admitted, shifting to dig out the velvet pouch from his front pocket. He skirted his way around the table and crouched down until he was bended on one knee in front of Danny.

That was also the moment his phone started to buzz.

“Danny,” Steve said, ignoring the call. “Danny, you’ve been everything in my life. You and Grace showed me that there’s more than just work and that protecting places and people means more when you’re doing it _for_ some _one_.”

His phone went to message and moments later, it started to buzz again as Steve dug out the ring and clasped it between his fingers. He took a moment to pause and look at Danny, _really_ look at him. He soaked in that look of giddy anticipation and smug glee on Danny’s face, wanting to rush through the rest of his speech to get the ring on Danny’s finger and straddle him, kissing him until Danny was begging to breathe.

Steve lifted the ring just that much higher. “Danny Williams, will you do me the...” He paused when his phone started to vibrate for the third time. Everyone Steve knew was aware of the importance of the evening, so who was calling? “Danny, will you...” He grimaced. “Sorry, it’s my phone,” he explained, when he kept fumbling.

“Seriously? You can’t turn your phone off during a proposal?” Danny teases, but he’s grinning and his eyes are on the ring. “Answer it. I’m sure it’ll be nothing.”

Steve dug out the phone, frowning when the caller display ID’ed the call as ‘DAD’. His father _knew_ the plan for the evening, why would he be calling, and why the hell would he _keep_ calling with such desperation?

Steve shifted, still on one knee, and pressed the phone to his ear.

“Dad, what the hell is going on?”

“Is that any way to talk to your father, McGarrett?”

Instantly, Steve’s blood ran cold. He shoved the ring back in his pocket, reaching out to latch his hand desperately onto Danny’s wrist, trying to find some kind of lifeline as the panic set in. It had been _years_ since even the faintest rumor of the Hesse brothers reached the islands, what were they doing there now?

Steve mouthed ‘Call Chin, HPD’ to Danny, his eyes wide with panic. “What are you doing at my father’s house, Victor? What is this?”

“It couldn’t be enough to call this revenge for Anton?”

“Your brother is still alive,” Steve spat out, finally pushing off his knee. He began to pace around the small area of the restaurant, watching Danny worriedly as he started to make his own phone calls, mobilizing as many people as possible. “I know that much. What do you want?”

“It’s not about what I want,” Victor said snidely. “It’s about the people I work for. John McGarrett has been poking his nose where it doesn’t belong.” Steve closed his eyes, running a hand through his hair and trying to will his imagination to stop thinking of things like the gun pointed at his father, or how much time he had to negotiate _anything_. “This is a message. You’re just lucky that you were busy with Daniel. It was going to be you. How is he? Do say hello,” Victor said. Steve could practically hear the smirk over the phone.

It made him want to punch through walls.

“Don’t even say his name,” Steve warned. Danny started to send back signals: _Chin is on his way, with backup_.

“Has he said yes? That was a very pretty ring you had,” Anton piped up for the first time all conversation.

Steve’s blood was boiling; he stalked across the restaurant to grab hold of Danny by the wrist, pulling him in protectively closer as though there was a shooter outside (with the Hesse boys, you could never be too sure) and he wanted to keep him close. “You were watching me today, by the shrimp truck.”

“Such a smart boy, Steve,” Victor said, clucking his tongue. “A shame we’re going to have to take your father away from you before your big day with Danny.”

Danny looked up at Steve, mouthing _Chin’s almost there_ and sliding a hand over Steve’s neck, twining his fingers with Steve’s hair tightly as he could while Steve held it together.

Chin would get there soon with Meka and Kono to back him up, and the whole of HPD was on their way. In moments, his father’s house would be crawling with the good guys and no matter _how good_ Anton and Victor Hesse were, no matter how many henchmen they’d brought, there was no escaping that.

Steve just had to buy them a little more time.

“Why? What was he getting close to?” Steve spat out, trying to keep his anger under control.

“I think you’ve got the photographs to explain well enough. Steven, I want you to say goodbye to your father. Have you told him you loved him, recently? You know,” Victor said, clipped, “I don’t think you say it enough.”

“Hesse!” Steve said in a panic. “Hesse! _Victor_ , don’t do this.”

“You know, when I took this job, I did it because you nearly killed my brother,” Victor said, “but I never really stopped to think how much I’d enjoy hearing you beg for your father’s life.”

“I can make some kind of deal, I can get you off the island,” Steve said, his words rapid. Every second counted. If he could stretch them out, he had a better chance of seeing his father through this ordeal. “I have the Governor at my disposal.”

“Steve,” Victor chastised. “It’s not about that. Say goodbye to your father,” he said.

The line crackled and then there was a hush. He could hear heavy breaths on the other end and Steve turned in turmoil on the spot, grabbing at Danny’s hand tighter as a reminder that even though he felt isolated in his helplessness, he had people and he had to have faith in them. The breathing on the line turned to sounds of helplessness and pain.

“Dad?” Steve finally spoke, his breath hitching. “Dad, it’s me, it’s Steve. Danny’s here with me, we’re okay, we’re safe. Just hang tight, Dad, okay? Help is on the way.”

Danny shifted his hand, gripping at Steve’s as he turned it over and held it steady to quell any tremors of adrenaline pushing through him.

“I love you, Champ,” John said, his voice hoarse.

Steve wondered how long Victor and Anton had been at the house – wondered what kind of shape his father was in – and hated that he was all the way downtown at a restaurant, unable to help. He wanted to be there more than anything, to _shoot_ the bastards that put his family through this _twice_.

“Dad, don’t,” Steve begged, not wanting to give in to hopelessness, but knowing that he would regret it forever if this was...

No, he refused to even think the words.

“Dad, I love you, but you’re going to be okay.”

Steve’s senses sharpened when he heard the sound of a gun making contact with skin and bone. He hadn’t brought any weapons to dinner with him, but instinctively his hand went to where he usually kept his holster, as though instinct prevailed over sense. “Time’s up, Steve,” Victor said, taking back control of the phone.

Steve couldn’t breathe. He sucked in air, but still felt like he was drowning.

He heard two sounds simultaneously – hope and despair at once.

He heard a gunshot and he heard Chin’s voice distantly over the line shouting, ‘Hands in the air, Five-0!’ Steve couldn’t tell which came first, couldn’t tell if Chin got there in time or if he was too late. The sounds could have been at least thirty seconds apart, for all Steve knew, but he was so distressed that his sense of the situation was warped beyond belief.

Steve’s eyes went wide with panic when he turned to Danny, a broken sound stuck in his throat. He tried to get it out, but he couldn’t manage. All he could do was stare at Danny, who pried the phone forcibly from Steve’s hands.

“Hesse!” Danny spat out furiously. “Victor Hesse, you are a goddamn _dead man_. I hope you know the hell you just condemned you and your brother to. I will hunt you down and I will make you suffer ten times over for anything you’ve done to John McGarrett. I swear, I swear to god,” Danny repeated, his anger weakening for a moment as sheer weariness took over for just a moment. “I swear to god, you’re gonna wish you were never born.”

Steve closed his eyes tightly, gripping the table to help keep him upright.

“Danny,” he croaked out, numbness starting to overtake all his senses. “Danny...”

He looked up to seek out Danny as an anchor, instead finding Danny looking at him with a strange expression on his face. Danny looked almost ... _happy_.

“Steve, c’mere,” Danny said hurriedly, holding out the phone. “It’s Chin, Steve, take the phone!”

Steve reached out tentatively and took the phone in hand, not sure what was about to happen. He’d been with Five-0 long enough to issue several death notifications and if it had to come from someone, at least it was coming from family. “Chin?” Steve asked when he’d swallowed back another wave of overwhelming grief.

“Steve, I need you to take a couple deep breaths for me,” Chin said, his instructions calm and patient. “Listen to me. Your Dad has been shot, but he’s still breathing. We came in just as Hesse was lining up the shot. It looks like John took a hit to the spleen. The ambulance is on the way.”

Steve fought through waves of relief and panic. “Victor? Anton?”

“They’ve been placed under arrest. They tried to run and, well, let’s just say that I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of either Kono’s roundhouse kick _or_ Meka’s elbow.”

Steve took a deep breath and relaxed, his posture loosening as he pressed his elbow to the table and leaned his face onto his hand. “Chin, _thank you_ ,” he breathed out. “We’ll meet you at the hospital. Good work. Good work on all of this.” His fingers shook as he hung up, feeling like he was extinguishing a line of contact between him and his father.

He turned to Danny and let out a laugh that was wracked with pain and relief, all at once.

“Babe?” Danny said softly. “Come on, we gotta get to the hospital,” he said, reaching forward to grasp at Steve’s shoulders (his touch lingering), trying to lift him to his feet. He took a moment to pull Steve in flush against his body, tipping his face upwards to press a kiss to Steve’s lips, hand possessive on the small of his back. “It’s gonna be okay, c’mon, breathe,” he coaxed.

Steve leaned heavy into Danny’s weight and let himself be supported out of the restaurant, ignoring the strange looks they received from the other diners once they got into a more public area.

Danny manoeuvred Steve forcibly away from the truck. “Nuh uh, no way, I’m driving,” he said, opening the passenger door of the Camaro for Steve, looking at him expectantly. “Get in.” He practically manhandled Steve into the car, buckling him up, and leaning down to get in his face for one more kiss. “Hey, Steven,” he breathed out.

“What?” Steve asked, running his hand over the seatbelt as he stared up at Danny, whose eyes seemed bluer than ever.

Danny braced his arm on the roof of the car, still leaning inside the Camaro. Even though he smiled, it didn’t exactly reach his eyes; but Steve couldn’t blame him after the last hour. “That was the worst proposal in history. Seriously. I think we should call up Guinness Records when we’re done getting your Dad some get-well flowers, because that? That was bad, babe. That was _so bad_.”

It was exactly what Steve needed. He couldn’t help his laugh and he could feel his tension slowly breaking apart and flooding away.

“Danny, please, can we just get to the hospital?” Steve asked tiredly. “You can rant on the way, just the way you like.”

“Yeah,” Danny said, rounding the car before sliding into the driver’s seat. He took one last wary look at Steve before getting the car going. “What do you want me to start with? Pineapples, coconuts, or your insane and reckless disregard for your own personal safety?”

With Danny speeding through the streets of Waikiki twenty miles above the speed-limit, sirens on, and a rant about pineapple upside-down cake filling the car, Steve knew that even if he didn’t know what was going to happen a week, a day, or an hour from then, at least he had _this_.

* * *

 _Three Weeks Later_

Steve checked his watch before shielding his gaze from the sun, watching the approach to the little patio-bar. He was sitting in the new rest aurant beside Iolani Palace, waiting for Nick to arrive from whatever classified location he’d flown in from. Nick wouldn’t say much about why he was visiting, but he’d mentioned that he needed to talk to Steve.

Steve’s phone sat on the table, and every few minutes Steve checked it warily. His father was in for his tenth surgery since the shooting. It wasn’t set in stone, but the doctors seemed to think that after this one, John might be able to go home and recuperate from there.

Grace had already forced Danny and Steve to take her over to John’s house so she could start ‘preparing’ his bedroom for optimum healing. Steve might have to apologize heavily to his father, rather than remove the obscene number of stuffed animals dressed up as nurses and doctors from John’s room, because he didn’t want to break Grace’s heart.

Mary was scheduled to land in Honolulu in a week’s time and Steve felt cautiously optimistic. He knew they weren’t out of the woods yet, but everyone seemed to think that John was going to be just fine.

Steve rose to his feet when he saw Nick arriving, setting aside his glass of water. It’d been too long since Steve last saw any of the people he’d served with, and having Nick here was a relief. It was like confirmation that he hadn’t lost a part of his life just because he left it behind. “Bullfrog, hey man,” Steve greeted, extending a hand.

Nick ignored that and pulled him in close for a hug, clapping Steve on the back firmly. “They told me you’d settled down, but I see new scars on that face, and your hand...”

Steve looked sheepishly at his hand. Danny had given him shit for that one for a full week, but after John went in for his second surgery and Steve still couldn’t get any information out of either of the Hesse brothers, he’d lost his patience and put his fist through a window.

Danny had shouted sense into his head, and flat-out told him that they were dropping John’s investigation because there were things more important than work. Steve had argued and fought, until Danny had uttered just one word:

“Grace.”

John had sent Mary and Steve far away to keep them safe from his investigation. Steve wasn’t going to do that, because he felt like he honestly couldn’t bear it. So instead, he caved and agreed with Danny that other people could pursue whoever had hired the Hesse brothers. Steve had Five-0, and they were busy enough without worrying about the people who had sent Victor and Anton to take John out of the picture.

He flexed his hand and rested it in his lap as he took a seat, effectively hiding the cuts. “Let’s just say I had a conversation with a window in which we agreed to disagree.”

“I’m sure the window looks worse,” Nick said evenly as he took the seat opposite Steve. “I’ll make this brief. I know about your reasons for leaving the Navy, but with DADT repealed, there’s a new mission that I’ve been given. I came here to personally extend an invitation to you to join my team and serve your country.”

Steve opened his mouth and closed it without having said anything at all. “I thought you were doing private contract work,” he finally managed when he could form words.

“I tried, but it didn’t take,” Nick said with a shrug. “What can you do?”

“Do you want a drink? I just got here, but I can...”

Nick shook his head. “No, no, I’ve got an appointment to meet with some of the Captains on the base in an hour, but I couldn’t come out here and not do you the courtesy of personally asking you to join my taskforce.”

Instinctively, all Steve could think was, _I have my own_. If he went back, it would mean leaving Danny and Grace. He would still have a connection to them, but it would be distant and tenuous. He would probably form a family unit amidst Nick’s new task force, but did he really need to go halfway around the world to find that when he already had one right here?

Steve nodded thoughtfully. He’d known Nick for a long time and his offer deserved a moment of consideration. “They really gave you a task force?”

“They practically hand them out these days,” Nick deadpanned. “I heard you got your own, here.”

“Yeah,” Steve said with a grin, ducking his head down to try and mask the sheer emotion on his face. “Yeah, who knows what’s going on with the people in charge these days?” He lifted his head and gave a sharp nod. “Nick, thank you for the offer, but I’m going to have to decline.”

“I had a feeling,” Nick admitted with a shrug. “But I had to try.”

Steve pushed to his feet when Nick got ready to depart, shaking his hand firmly and thanking him for the visit. He felt _remembered_ , if nothing else, and knew that at least his skills were valued, even after all this time. “It was good to see you, Bullfrog,” Steve said. “You’ll call the next time you’re in town?”

“I already have the invitation e-mail,” Nick reminded him. “Congratulations.”

“It’s still touch and go,” Steve said hurriedly, not wanting to jinx it. “We’re waiting for Dad to get better, so, keep your calendar open.”

“Is Catherine going to be there?”

Steve shot Nick an unimpressed look. “You seriously want to beat that dead horse?”

“Hey,” Nick protested. “There’s no harm in a dance or two.”

Steve laughed until his stomach ached, clapping Nick on the back and pushing him off in the direction of the parking lot. “Go, get out of here before you miss your meeting.” He waved one last goodbye to Nick before walking the short distance back to Five-0 Headquarters.

Danny was the only one who knew about the actual reason for him leaving the office in the first place, but it looked like he’d told the others while Steve was gone.

The whole team was assembled in the conference room around the computer, giving Steve apprehensive looks while trying not to look too interested.

“Damn it, Danny!” Steve said with growing frustration. “You have the biggest mouth on the island, you know that?”

“I didn’t hear you complaining last night,” Danny said, smirking.

“So?” Kono asked, sounding worried. “What’s it gonna be, boss?”

“Don’t we have work to do?” Steve asked as he joined his team at the table, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m _sure_ that we had a group of smugglers running coke, and jewel thieves on the table just yesterday.”

Meka shrugged, holding out his fist for Danny to bump. “Hazard of being the best, Bossman. We already put ‘em away.”

“See, this, this is my heaven, Steven,” Danny said, once he and Meka were done with their elaborate handshake that only the two of them had ever bothered to learn. He reached out to grab hold of Meka’s shoulder, hauling him close. He did the same to Kono on the other side until he was hugging them in tight. “Police officers who follow procedure. Do you know what Kono did the other day? She _waited_ for _backup_. I wanted to cry, I was so proud.”

“Maybe I can still call Nick and tell him I changed my mind,” Steve said, pretending to dig out his phone. “I mean, if this is the treatment I get...”

A collective groan went up around the rest of the team, but it was Chin who stepped forward to corral Steve by the shoulder and pull him closer. “Does this mean you’re sticking around, brah?”

Steve gave each of his team a momentary look of consideration, spending a little more time looking at Danny than at anyone else. Danny, who already knew his answer. Steve wasn’t a stupid man, and he wasn’t about to make a life-changing decision without talking to Danny first. He took the time to bask in the overwhelming love and trust he had in his team.

“He wanted me to come back and rejoin my family in the Navy,” Steve said. “Thing is, I’ve already found _ohana_ , and it’s right here.”

He was rewarded by a long silence before he had balled-up paper thrown at him from all sides.

“Lame!” Kono said, laughing brightly.

“Really, Bossman?” Meka asked, making a face. “Is this from the sensitivity seminar you were forced to attend last week?”

Danny was laughing loudest of them all, ducking out of the three-way hug he had going on to round the table and slide an arm around Steve’s waist to pull him in close.

“We love you too, Steve,” he said, bowing his forehead to press it to Steve’s temple, “you _goof_.”


End file.
